sordid, cheap little miseries, like gnat-bites;--so petty and so
sordid that I can hardly talk to God about them, much less to a
human friend. Patty is my only outlet and I need others, yet I
find it almost impossible to escape from the narrowness of my
life and be of use to any one else." The girl's voice quivered
and a single tear-drop on her cheek showed that she was speaking
from a full heart. "This afternoon's talk has determined me in
one thing," she went on. "I am going to see your mother now and
then. I shall have to do it secretly, for your sake, for hers,
and for my own, but if I am found out, then I will go openly.
There must be times when one can break the lower law, and yet
keep the higher. Father's law, in this case, is the lower, and I
propose to break it."

"I can't have you getting into trouble, Waitstill," Ivory
objected. "You're the one woman I can think of who might help my
mother; all the same, I would not make your life harder; not for
worlds!"

"It will not be harder, and even if it was I should 'count it all
joy' to help a woman bear such sorrow as your mother endures
patiently day after day"; and Waitstill rose to her feet and tied
on her hat as one who had made up her mind.

It was almost impossible for Ivory to hold his peace then, so
full of gratitude was his soul and so great his longing to pour
out the feeling that flooded it. He pulled himself together and
led the way out of the churchyard. To look at Waitstill again
would be to lose his head, but to his troubled heart there came a
flood of light, a glory from that lamp that a woman may hold up