taken but a short time ago. Look at it I beg. See what she was
like when life was full of hope; and then imagine her with all
hope eliminated."

"Excuse me. What use? I can do nothing. I am very sorry for the
child, but--" His very attitude showed his disinclination to look
at the picture.

But she would not be denied. She thrust it upon him and once his
eyes had fallen upon it, they clung there though evidently against
his will. Ah, she knew that Reuther's exquisite countenance would
plead for itself! God seldom grants to such beauty, so lovely a
spirit. If the features themselves failed to appeal, certainly he
must feel the charm of an expression which had already netted so
many hearts. Breathlessly she watched him, and, as she watched,
she noted the heavy lines carved in his face by thought and
possibly by sorrow, slowly relax and his eyes fill with a wistful
tenderness.

In the egotism of her relief, she thought to deepen the impression
she had made by one vivid picture of her daughter as she was now.
Mistaking his temperament or his story, classing him in with other
strong men, the well of whose feeling once roused overflows in
sympathetic emotion, she observed very gently but, as she soon
saw, unwisely:

"Such delicacy can withstand a blow, but not a steady heartbreak.
When, on that dreadful night I crept in from my sleepless bed to
see how my darling was bearing her long watch, this was what I
saw. She had not moved, no, not an inch in the long hours which