scenes and occasions when they were worn. At such times, she almost seemed
beside him, and he had a consciousness of companionship which soothed his
perturbed spirit. He felt that she appreciated such loving remembrance,
although unable to express her approval. He did not know it, but his nature
was being softened, deepened, and enriched by these deep and unwonted
experiences; the hard materiality of his life was passing away, rendering him
capable of something better than he had ever known.

In the morning all the old, prosaic problems of his life would return, with
their hard, practical insistence, and he knew that he must decide upon
something very soon. His lonely vigils and days of quiet had brought him to
the conclusion that he could not hunt up a wife as a matter of business. He
would rather face the "ever angry bears" than breathe the subject of matrimony
to any woman that he could ever imagine himself marrying. He was therefore
steadily drifting toward the necessity of selling everything and going away.
This event, however, was like a coral reef to a sailor, with no land in view
beyond it. The only thing which seemed certain was the general breaking up of
all that had hitherto made his life.

The offer of help came from an unexpected source. One morning Holcroft
received a call from a neighbor who had never before shown any interest in his
affairs. On this occasion, however, Mr. Weeks began to display so much
solicitude that the farmer was not only surprised, but also a little
distrustful. Nothing in his previous knowledge of the man had prepared the
way for such very kindly intervention.

After some general references to the past, Mr. Weeks continued, "I've been
saying to our folks that it was too bad to let you worry on alone without more
neighborly help. You ought either to get married or have some thoroughly
respectable and well-known middle-aged woman keep house for you. That would