his hearty words and manner were bracing to her over-sensitive and
timid soul, and his unaffected, unforced kindness was so constant that
she gradually came to regard it as one of the best certainties of her
life. She soon learned, however, that behind his sunny good-nature
was a fiery and impatient spirit, ready to manifest itself if he was
chafed beyond a certain point, and so a slight element of fear was
mingled with her childlike affection.

He had sufficient tact to understand Madge's diffidence, and he knew
that their family life would soon banish it. He welcomed this pale
slip of a girl to their home circle because it gave him pleasure to
pet and rally such a wraith into something like genuine existence. He
also hoped that eventually she would become a source of amusement to
him. Nor was he disappointed. Madge's mind was not colorless, if her
face was, and she gradually began to respond to his mirthfulness, and
to take an interest, intelligent for a child, in what occupied his
thoughts. Kindness creates an atmosphere in which the most sensitive
and diffident natures develop and reveal themselves, and Madge Alden,
who might easily have been chilled into a reticent and dispirited
girl, eventually manifested an unusual versatility of fancy and
thought, acquiring also no slight power of expression.

Thus Graydon obtained his reward. His brother was a grave and silent
man, to whom few themes could be broached except those of business
and the events and politics of the day in their relation to trade. His
sister-in-law was absorbed in household and family cares, but Madge's
great black eyes responded with quick appreciation to all that he
said, and their merry nonsense often provoked a smile upon even the
face of Mr. Muir. The good-natured sympathy of the young man therefore
passed gradually into a genuine fraternal regard, and he rarely came