perhaps he will come back some day and tell me I was right."

Mr. Lindsay heard her in silence, with his mild eyes fixed on the
carpet. But when she had finished he looked up again, and she was
shocked to find that the gentle obstinacy which had been in his face
before was there still.

"I am, indeed, sorry for your disappointment," he said sweetly. "Or
rather I should be if it were such a one that you could not hope
to--to--in fact, to get over it. But--but these are trials which may be,
perhaps, only sent to show that you, even you, happily placed as you are
and gifted of the Almighty, are human, after all, and not beyond
suffering. And--and it may give you an opportunity of seeing that there
are others who can appreciate you better, and who would only be too glad
to--to--to--"

"To step into his shoes!" finished Doreen for him, with a sigh. "I know
what you were going to say, and if you won't be stopped, I suppose I
must hear you out. But, oh, dear, I do wish you wouldn't!"

He was not to be put off like that. In fact, he was not to be put off by
any available means. He sighed a little, and persisted.

"I am glad you have guessed what I was going to say, Miss Wedmore,
though I should not have put it quite in that way. And why should you
not want to hear it? I should have thought that even you must be not
quite indifferent to any man's honest feelings of esteem and admiration
toward you!"

Doreen was looking at him helplessly, with wide-open eyes. Did he really