Madame Grundy was saying that winter that at last Kenneth Landor had settled down, though why he should take the trouble to burden himself with business cares when he had a rich, indulgent father was, from her point of view, wholly incomprehensible. Other people who knew Kenneth better saw that his life had become full of purpose and regarded it as the natural outcome of a nature like his—rich in possibilities. To the father who was just learning to know the son, there was much that was surprising in the intelligent way in which he grasped the great commission business and little by little made himself familiar with every detail, showing that in his composition was much practical ability—talents unquestionably inherited. Of any ulterior motive which had led him on to these things Mr. Landor had no suspicion nor indeed had any one save Dr. Ware, who kept his own counsel, and possibly Jack, whose fanciful imagination wove endless romances, the thread of which became wretchedly entangled, for what could a poor boy do with two heroines to one hero?

That was the stumbling block of our young author, for he never could make up his mind to choose between the Dale girls. First he would write out a beautiful story in which his hero (and there was only one hero to him) married Julie and was as happy as the day is long. This would have been eminently satisfactory if it had not been for a sort of feeling of slighting Hester, who seemed to be lurking in the background of his tale gazing at him with reproachful eyes. Jack the tender-hearted could not stand that, so zip!—would go all the paper, torn to shreds, and he would patiently start all over again to give Hester a chance. But however he arranged it, one was left out. He couldn’t have it on his conscience to make his hero a Mormon and so to one and one alone could he belong. This was all wrong, from Jack’s point of view, but he did not know how to make it any different and as it seemed to be a subject he could not discuss with any of the three persons most concerned the poor boy gave it up in despair.

But if Jack was racked with indecision it was not so with Kenneth Landor, who had fallen in love with Hester at first sight. One hears that to fall in love at first sight is an experience belonging to bygone days, and is quite unknown to the practical common-sense young people of whom in this generation one hears so much. Be that as it may, Kenneth, in spite of his worldly experience, was old-fashioned enough to be full of sentiment and treasured in his mind every meeting with Hester down to their first walk when she had dismissed him so summarily under the lamp-post. He could count them on the fingers of one hand, the actual hours he had spent with her, but between Dr. Ware and Jack he managed to keep as well informed concerning her life as if he were in daily intercourse with her; and it was his sole aim and ambition to put her struggles to an end. The generous fellow had not GrÉmond’s idea of taking one of them away—he could not conceive of the little family being separated and his admiration of Julie was rapidly growing into an affection that made him long to cast her life, too, in sunny places and make a snug little home for them all. These were Kenneth’s hopes and dreams—air-castles which sometimes took grim, fantastic shapes and often tottered to the ground when he remembered that Hester might not deign to look at him.

Suddenly into all this work and dreaming entered a new element, threatening to disturb the future with a terrible upheaval, for the necessity that our country should go to war with Spain was talked of openly throughout the land. Rumors that war would be, had been, never would be declared were rife, suggested and contradicted in a breath, while the uncertainty of national affairs produced an excitement that pervaded all classes and conditions of men.

Kenneth was one of those who believed in the war and whose whole spirit was fired with a desire to do his part toward jealously guarding his country’s honor. At the same time, if he hoped to win Hester and make a home for her it scarcely seemed as if it would accrue to his advantage to go away. These things were so in his mind that he longed for a chance to see and talk with her, and then, as always, in his thoughts of her he was confronted by the fearful consciousness that she might take no interest in so unimportant a thing as himself. Nevertheless, he meant to make himself important to her and it was therefore to him as to GrÉmond, a great disappointment that the girls had not put in an appearance at Miss Ware’s reception and he had spent an anxious night speculating as to the cause of their non-appearance.

He managed by rising earlier than usual to get around to Dr. Ware’s office on his way to business the morning after the reception; but, contrary to habit, that individual was already off. Much perturbed he worked harder than ever at the office and regretted that he had promised to drive out of town to a wedding. He was in no mood for society, even so charming as that of the Lennoxes. He was not a man who broke his engagements, however, and therefore went home about three o’clock to dress. When the Lennoxes called for him he sauntered out in his usual charming manner and made the greater effort to be agreeable to each member of the party from the mere fact that it was an effort. This is a form of unselfishness, trivial perhaps, but necessitating a willingness to put aside one’s personal inclination, to thrust aside one’s mood for the general good. Some people call it adaptability, some tact, some a desire to please, but in Kenneth Landor, as in many others, it was an unselfish wish to contribute his share to the general entertainment. He was a man who recognized the duty of a guest to his hostess and did not look upon it as being all the other way. Having adjusted himself to a purely impersonal philosophical attitude toward the expedition, imagine his revulsion of feeling when Mrs. Lennox told him that the party would not be complete until they had picked up Miss Hester Dale whose sister, unfortunately, was unable to go with them. As we know, she delegated him to escort Hester down and we may know too, though no one on the coach suspected it, that he went up the four flights of stairs two steps at a time and nearly ran down Jack who was hobbling up on his crutches.

What if, when he and Hester went into the street together she was immediately appropriated by their host and given the seat of honor beside him. Couldn’t Kenneth see her—every turn of her pretty head—and wasn’t he inwardly proud that she was chosen for this distinction and didn’t he know that it would be his own fault if he did not monopolize her later on?

As for Hester, she had never been in a merrier mood and chattered on like a little magpie, forgetful of her sister’s warning “not to talk herself black in the face.” Every now and then she would heave a little sigh and audibly wish Julie were there—a wish promptly seconded by her host, who nevertheless was amply satisfied with his companion.

The mere sensation of bowling along over smooth roads and through the beautiful environs of Radnor was in itself a novelty and delight to Hester but she was raised to the seventh heaven of bliss when Mr. Lennox, after a talk they had had about horses, said:

“Wouldn’t you like to take the ribbons, Miss Dale?”

“Oh!” she gasped, “but my gloves—I can’t drive in these,” holding up two white kid hands. She did not think it necessary to add that they were her only pair.

“Take them off and I’ll give you mine. You can manage even if they are big. Try.”

She tried and in another moment the gloves were on, the ribbons slipped into her fingers and the control of four superb horses lay within her hands. Ah! how delicious it was to feel their strength and hers!

“What would Mrs. Lennox say if she knew I were driving?”

“She would not mind, but the others might. We’ll never tell.”

“Never.”

They swung along at an even pace, but presently, as if conscious that the ribbons had changed hands, the horses became restive and finally taking fright at an imaginary object, the leaders shied and plunged forward madly.

“Give them their heads!” commanded Mr. Lennox peremptorily.

“Don’t drive at quite such a mad pace, please Mr. Lennox,” cried a girl from the rear, “you frighten us nearly to death.”

“Oh! it’s all right,” reassuringly, “they’ll quiet down in a moment.”

Hester with set lips and feet firmly planted was struggling to get them under control. She did not speak nor did Mr. Lennox again, but he watched her narrowly, alert and ready in a second to relieve her. He thought her equal to the emergency and she was, for after half a mile of tearing madly over the ground, she succeeded in regaining control of them and the horses, recognizing the strength of an experienced hand, quieted down into the old habit of obedience.

“Good!” cried Mr. Lennox, “you’re a crack whip, as I thought.”

A little color came back into Hester’s white face. “I’m so grateful to you for not taking them away from me,” she said. “I should have died of humiliation if you had.”

“I thought I could trust you to pull through, but now that you have proved your prowess—and I believe you just got the animals to playing tricks to show what you could do, you sly young person—aren’t you a bit tired? Shan’t I drive?”

“Oh! thank you, yes, but I—I enjoyed it.”

She was very quiet after that, and presently when they reached the house and Landor sprang off and turned to lift her down, the two bright red spots in her cheeks did not escape him nor the subdued manner so unusual to her.

As they passed into the house Hester saw in the hall a large table piled high with small white boxes and she shuddered as she thought how they had spent half the night over the completion of those innocent looking things. The satin bows actually had a “perky” look as if the ribbon had just tied itself without any trouble whatever! Turning her back on them abruptly she followed Mrs. Lennox into the drawing-room, where the ceremony took place a few moments after their arrival.

It was a simple wedding with no bridesmaids nor ushers nor adjuncts of any kind, and the bridegroom had so large a family connection that only intimate friends had been added to the list so that the reception took on the informal character of a large family gathering. When the bride had been kissed all around, including every male cousin, in spite of the laughing protests of the bridegroom, she led the way into the dining-room for supper.

“May I take you out, Miss Dale?” asked a dapper young fellow who had just been presented to Hester.

“Thank you, I—”

“You can’t walk off with Miss Dale in that calm fashion, Charley,” said a voice back of them, “she’s promised to come to supper with me.”

Hester had no recollection of any such compact so she looked up and said mischievously, “What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Landor,” turning the while as if to move off with the younger man.

“You come with me, won’t you?” urged Charley Bemis, “Landor always claims the earth and never gives us younger fellows a chance. We’ll have to hurry a bit, Miss Dale,” looking at her entreatingly, “if we want to see the bride cut the cake.”

“The cake!” she repeated, suddenly shrinking back. “Oh! Mr. Bemis, you go on without me, will you? I—”

“Run along, Charley,” said Landor. “Miss Dale and I will follow. The dining-room will never begin to hold us all anyway, so if we do not get in you look us up and tell us who got the ring. You may get it yourself if you hurry, who knows!”

“Oh!” said Hester when the man had departed, “I couldn’t go in there—I just couldn’t.”

“Of course not,” emphatically, “it is much too crowded. They’ve covered in the piazza by the dining-room. Won’t you let me bring you something to eat out there?”

“How could you fib to that boy so!” exclaimed the girl at the same time signifying her willingness to be led to some less crowded spot.

Kenneth laughed. “You drove me to it. Do you suppose I intended to let him walk off with you under my very eyes?”

“Why not? I’m sure he seemed a very nice boy,” with marked emphasis.

“Oh! yes, he’s nice enough,” cheerfully, “quite nice, now you mention it, but I’m not just yearning for his society at the present moment.”

“Perhaps I am,” getting a wistful far-away expression in her eyes that was tantalizing.

“Here we are,” said the man abruptly as they reached a semi-circular piazza where tables and chairs had been placed. “If you will sit down, Miss Dale, I’ll look up Mr. Bemis immediately.”

“Thank you,” demurely, “but if it should happen that you found the supper first, would you mind bringing that instead? I am so hungry,” with a pathetic droop at the corners of her mouth.

He went off on air, returning followed by a waiter almost before she had a chance to miss him.

And what a gay little supper that was! They had a small table quite to themselves, where Landor played host and was solicitous in providing for all her wants. Mr. Lennox, wandering about with an eye to his party, smiled across the piazza at her and reported to his wife that Hester was being well taken care of. Half unconsciously the girl herself was aware that her slightest wish was anticipated and she caught herself wondering as she played with her ice, whether it was chance or design that led Mr. Landor to avoid having any cake served at their table. It was everywhere else in abundance; hundreds of colored frosted cakes that seemed to Hester like so many little imps grinning at her and crying, “You made me—you made me!” This fantastic notion wrought itself into her tired brain until she wanted to scream out from very nervousness and caused Kenneth to say, as if divining her thoughts:

“You are tired, Miss Dale. I am afraid you had an anxious night of it. I hope your father is better this morning.”

“How did you know?”

“We—we missed you at the reception,” evasively, “and when Dr. Ware went off I had my suspicions.”

“It was not Daddy,” she said quietly, “it was—other things.” Then in a lighter tone, “Don’t look so solemn, please, I want to be gay and forget last night.”

“What would happen, Miss Dale, if I were to lecture you?” smiling at her.

“Try and see,” teasingly. “Probably I shall laugh. I usually do when Julie scolds me and then she laughs too and that spoils the effect. Well, begin. What is the greatest of my enormities? Have you made out a list?”

“Will you promise me something?” earnestly, leaning forward with a pleading expression on his handsome face.

“Perhaps. I am in a most docile mood at this moment.”

“Then promise me you will do no more driving. You are not equal to it to-night, indeed you are not, and it takes all the strength out of you.”

“How do you know I drove? Did Mr. Lennox tell you?” regarding him with raised eyebrows.

“No—but I knew.”

“If you are one of those mysterious persons who always know everything, I am going to avoid you,” she laughed, feeling herself flush under his earnest scrutiny.

“You have not promised,” he persisted.

“Did I promise to promise?” with a swift provoking glance from under her long lashes.

“Miss Dale,” pleading, “I never asked a favor of you before.”

“Why should you?” wrinkling up her forehead and wishing he had not so persuasive a voice.

“I know—probably you think it is impertinent, but” coaxingly, “if you would just this once,—”

“Well, is this where you sneaked off to?” cried a voice beside them; “a pretty chase you’ve led me!” and Charley Bemis dropped into the nearest chair and held out a plate to Hester. “See here, Miss Dale, you wouldn’t go to the mountain, so I’ve brought the mountain to you. The bride cut the cake long ago but I saved my piece to eat with you. Landor doesn’t get a crumb.”

Landor looked as if he would like to stuff the whole slice down the man’s throat. The girl smiled and resigned herself to at least make a pretense of eating the thing she had tried so desperately to avoid.

“There is something in your half,” suggested young Bemis significantly.

“Is there?” replied Hester, wishing his enthusiasm were less. “You find it for me.”

He cut her piece and pulled out something wrapped in paraffine paper which proved to be a shining gold dollar.

“Oh! you’ve got it!” he cried. “Miss Dale’s got the money,” turning to announce it to the whole piazza, “she’s going to be rich!”

“How nice of you to prophesy such good fortune,” she replied picking up the coin and rising. “Won’t you come and help me find Mrs. Lennox and tell her about it? I am sure Mr. Landor will excuse us?”

Kenneth, who had risen, bowed low and wondered how so adorably pretty a girl could be so stony-hearted. He was utterly confounded when, as she brushed by him she slipped something in his hand with a whispered “That’s for luck,” and vanished with Bemis in attendance. A quick indrawing of his fingers into the palm of his hand told Landor a little coin lay within his grasp. A half-smothered ejaculation escaped him! Her luck she had passed on to him! Did he dare attribute to it any significance? No outward sign betrayed his inward perturbation as he sauntered into the house to join the other guests.

Whether it was Kenneth’s skillful management or a preconceived arrangement on Mrs. Lennox’s part or just Fate, deponent saith not, but the fact remains that when the coach started off again that evening, Hester found herself ensconced on the back seat with Landor, the rest of the party chatting gayly in front of them, the guards well in the rear.

“Miss Dale,” Landor said when they had ridden some moments in silence, “are you too tired to-night to let me talk to you a little, seriously?” He had no desire to lose any time.

“Then you think I can be serious?”

“I know you can, only you never choose to be with me.”

“I am an awful tease,” she admitted, touched by his wistful tone, “but I can be the most serious person in the world and I should like to have you to talk to me, only—you are not going to scold me any more, are you, Mr. Landor? I think I am really too tired for that.” Her low musical voice seemed to drift to him plaintively through the darkness.

“I was going to be selfishly egotistical and talk about—about a friend of mine,” hoping she had not detected how near he had come to blundering. “I wanted to ask your advice about him if you are quite sure you are not too tired to listen, Miss Dale.”

“Of course I am not. I should like to hear about your friend, Mr. Landor.”

Was there ever a voice so sweet, he thought, or a girl so full of contradictions? One moment bewitchingly, aggravatingly whimsical, the next revealing unfathomable depths of a nature which to him seemed the purest and noblest in the world. Aloud he said:

“My friend is torn by a divided duty. He wants to go to the war but—”

“You think there will be war? Can’t he go?” she interrupted. “It seems to me every man must go who can.”

“Yes, he can, but there are people whom he loves whom he hates to leave—more than that whom he wants to stay and protect. It is as if his whole future were at stake—not only his but theirs, and he can’t seem to see his way clear.”

“Are they old and dependent on him for support, these people?”

“No, but he wants them to become dependent on him and how can that be if he goes away?”

“If they love him,” the girl said emphatically, “they will not stand in his way.”

“But he does not know that they love him or that they will ever love him. He only knows that he loves them and—oh! Miss Dale,” sweeping aside this strangely complicated case, “if you had a brother in times like these, what would you do?”

“Do?” she cried; “why, I’d help him off to the front without a moment’s hesitation! Julie and I would be the proudest girls in the world if we had a brother to go to the war! If Daddy were well he would go—there never was a finer officer than Daddy. Oh! Mr. Landor, you know us so little that you’ve no idea how strongly we feel about these things. We’ve tried in our own small way, Julie and I, to be soldiers ourselves and we think no sacrifice too great to make for one another and for our country.” In her earnestness she had forgotten the man beside her, the friend and everything save the inspiration of those principles which were as the very air she breathed.

He made no reply, fearing to break the spell and startle her back into her old elusiveness. This revelation of her inner self was very precious to him.

Presently she said: “Perhaps I know a little how your friend feels, because I have always thought if ever I lived in war times I should go as a nurse, but now I could not consider such a thing.”

“You? You are too young,” he gasped, never dreaming of this possibility.

“No, I am not too young, but Julie could not carry on our business and take care of Daddy, too, all alone, and my duty is here.”

“You are doing active service in a field much harder than anything they may see in Cuba,” he said intently.

“Oh! no, don’t say that; I do not deserve it; but you have talked to me so frankly about your friend that I wanted you to know I understand a little, though I do not believe I have been of any help. But this much I know, if I were one of those people whom he loves, however much I might need him and perhaps want him,”—was her voice faltering?—“I should urge him to go and love him the better for going and believe that his future and all connected with him would be the richer and the brighter for the personal sacrifice.”

There was an exultant ring in her low voice that set the man’s heart to throbbing with a pain strangely new and exquisite and so great was his emotion that for some time he did not trust himself to speak. When he did he said very gently:

“You have helped my friend, Miss Dale, more than you have any idea and I thank you for him. Some day, perhaps, you will let him thank you himself. I—I shall always remember your kindness to-night” (poor fellow, it was not easy to pick his words calmly when he longed to pour his heart out to her). “I may not see you again for awhile; I—I am going away.”

The coach drew up at her door and she was brought to a sudden realization of her surroundings by the laughing salutations of the party as they said goodnight. Kenneth had sprung to the ground and was waiting to assist her to alight. She was not conscious of the gentle, almost tender manner in which he lifted her down, but as he stood with bared head holding the door open, for her, she stopped a moment and put out her hands impulsively.

“Is this good-by?” she said, her beautiful eyes looking full into his.

“Yes,” with her hands close in his, “I shall go out with the first regiment from Radnor.”