hang a drooping head, and look her wistfully in the eye for sympathy.
Prop on, prop ever, seems to be the underlying law of the universe!"

"Poor Reba! She is talking of Letty and thinking of herself!" And the
minister's eye twinkled.

"Well, a little!" admitted his wife; "but I'm only a village prop, not
a family one. Where you are concerned"--and she administered an
affectionate pat to his cheek as she rose from her chair--"I'm a
trellis that leans against a rock!"




[Illustration]

III


Letitia Boynton's life had been rather a drab one as seen through
other people's eyes, but it had never seemed so to her till within the
last few years. Her own father had been the village doctor, but of him
she had no memory. Her mother's second marriage to a venerable country
lawyer, John Gilman, had brought a kindly, inefficient stepfather into
the family, a man who speedily became an invalid needing constant
nursing. The birth of David when Letty was three years old, brought a
new interest into the household, and the two children grew to be fast
friends; but when Mrs. Gilman died, and Letty found herself at
eighteen the mistress of the house, the nurse of her aged stepfather,
and the only guardian of a boy of fifteen, life became difficult. More