Still he worked bravely on, early and late, taking no rest except for an hour or so in the afternoon, when he found it a very pleasant change to walk through the leafy woods, so full of summer life and beauty, to where Maude waited for him, with her sunny face and bright smile, which always grew brighter at his coming.

How could he know what was in her mind ?--he, who never dreamed it possible that she, of all other girls, could fall in love with him--'that Hastings chap, poor as poverty,' as he knew Tom sometimes called him.
That Maude liked him, he was sure; but he supposed it was mostly for the amusement he afforded her, and for the sake of Jerrie, of whom she was never tired of talking.

Maude's friendship was very sweet to the young man, who had so few means of enjoyment, and whose life was one of toil and care.

So he went blindly on toward the pitfall in the distance, and began at last to look forward with a great deal of pleasure to the readings or talks with Maude, even though he did not find her very intellectual.

She amused and rested him, and that was something to the tired and overworked man.
The room was finished inside at last, and looked exceedingly cool and pleasant in its dress of blue and gray, and its two rows of colored glass in each window; for Harold had carried out Tom's suggestion in that respect, and by going without a new hat and a pair of pants, which he needed, had managed to get the glass, which he set himself; for, as he said to Maude, who assisted him in the matching and arrangement, he was a kind of jack-at-all-trades.