it Julia. However, he said, he felt sure I knew best, and by the time I
received the letter he and Hannah would be one.

"That letter worried me. I began to wonder if, after all, I had chosen
the right girl. Suppose Hannah was not all I thought her! What a
terrible thing it would be for Josiah. What data, sufficient to reason
upon, had I possessed? How did I know that Hannah was not a lazy, ill-
tempered girl, a continual thorn in the side of her poor, overworked
mother, and a perpetual blister to her younger brothers and sisters? How
did I know she had been well brought up? Her father might be a precious
old fraud: most seemingly pious men are. She may have learned from him
only hypocrisy.

"Then also, how did I know that Juliana's merry childishness would not
ripen into sweet, cheerful womanliness? Her father, for all I knew to
the contrary, might be the model of what a retired sea-captain should be;
with possibly a snug little sum safely invested somewhere. And Juliana
was his only child. What reason had I for rejecting this fair young
creature's love for Josiah?

"I took her photo from my desk. I seemed to detect a reproachful look in
the big eyes. I saw before me the scene in the little far-away home when
the first tidings of Josiah's marriage fell like a cruel stone into the
hitherto placid waters of her life. I saw her kneeling by her father's
chair, while the white-haired, bronzed old man gently stroked the golden
head, shaking with silent sobs against his breast. My remorse was almost
more than I could bear.

"I put her aside and took up Hannah--my chosen one. She seemed to be
regarding me with a smile of heartless triumph. There began to take