girl, standing in the garden path, glanced, as he came up, at his thread
gloves.

"I hoped you were going to church," he said. "I wanted to walk with
you."

"I am very much obliged to you," Gertrude answered. "I am not going to
church."

She had shaken hands with him; he held her hand a moment. "Have you any
special reason for not going?"

"Yes, Mr. Brand," said the young girl.

"May I ask what it is?"

She looked at him smiling; and in her smile, as I have intimated, there
was a certain dullness. But mingled with this dullness was something
sweet and suggestive. "Because the sky is so blue!" she said.

He looked at the sky, which was magnificent, and then said, smiling too,
"I have heard of young ladies staying at home for bad weather, but
never for good. Your sister, whom I met at the gate, tells me you are
depressed," he added.

"Depressed? I am never depressed."

"Oh, surely, sometimes," replied Mr. Brand, as if he thought this a
regrettable account of one's self.