n fair women's
smiles by deeds of valor--something very unlike the prosaic happenings
of this practical modern life. But yesterday a wandering pilgrim, to-day
I have found a shrine. ''Tis a dream!' I thought, when I opened my
eyes this morning, 'a dream, too sweet to be true! Rube, old fellow,'
I said to myself, 'you've got something to live for now. You must
look to your ways and improve upon the old ones. There's a dear little
hand that belongs to you; there's a pair of blue eyes to watch for
your coming; there's a sweet little woman who believes in you, God bless
her! For her sake I will run the race of life like a man; for her
sweet sake I will win it!'"

This was the time for Mell to speak. She wanted to speak, but--she did
not. There were just exactly six reasons why she did not.

Here they are, all in a row:

Reason Number One.--She was not quite sure of Jerome--quite sure,
perhaps, in regard to his affections, but not his intentions. Love is
much, but not everything, and a lover surrounded by difficulties is
not to be depended upon matrimonially.

Number Two.--She was as resolutely bent upon getting out of this mean,
sordid life as ever, and what way was there but this way?

Number Three.--Rube was rich, and Rube's wife would be rich, too. For
her part, she was sick and tired of poverty. Poverty, in a world
governed by wealth, is the most unpardonable sin in that world's
decalogue.

Number Four.--Rube was in "society," and what ambitious woman ever yet
saved her soul outside the magic circle of society?

Number Five.--Rube was an aristocrat, and Rube's wife would be _ex
necessitate rei_, an aristocrat also. Her Creator, she believed, had
intended her for an aristocrat; otherwise why had He endowed her with
intellect, beauty, and the power to sway men's passions?

Number Six.--The fact that she did not love Rube had, in reality,
nothing to do with Rube's eligibility as a husband. He would make a
very good one, an infinitely better one than none at all!

Of course, she would be paying a tremendous price for all these
worldly advantages. Mell was aware of that all the while, but after
deducting from the gross weight of their true value the real or
approximate weight of their possible evils and disadvantages, she
would undoubtedly still be getting the best of a good bargain.

What is life but an enigmatical offset of losses and gain--so much
gain on the one hand, so much loss on the other? And what was t