"He made Willie read them aloud to Mary, he told me; he said it was proper to observe such forms in a family, no matter what the conditions might be.

Imagine Willie stumbling through Chronicles, and Mary fast asleep at her end of that big dark dining-room!" Gifford smiled, but the rector was too much distressed to be amused; he shivered as they drove away.
"Ah," he said sharply, "how I hate that slam of a carriage door! Makes me think of but one thing.

Yes, I must see him to-morrow.

I must tell him to-morrow." The rector settled back in his corner, his face darkening with a grieved and troubled frown, and they did not speak until they reached the rectory gate.

As it swung heavily back against the group of white lilacs behind it, shaking out their soft, penetrating fragrance into the night air, some one sprang towards the carriage, and almost before it stopped stood on the steps, and rapped with impatient joy at the window.
It was Lois.