difference from other priests that made me think of him for a moment.
He seems to be as much cut off from the church as from the world. And
yet he is a priest, with a priest's education. What if I should have
been altogether mistaken? He is either one of the openest souls in the
world, as you have insisted, or he is one of the closest."

"I should not be afraid of him in any case," said Florida; "but I can't
believe any wrong of him."

Ferris frowned in annoyance. "I don't want you to; I don't, myself.
I've bungled the matter as I might have known I would. I was trying to
put into words an undefined uneasiness of mine, a quite formless desire
to have you possessed of the whole case as it had come up in my mind.
I've made a mess of it," said Ferris rising, with a rueful air.
"Besides, I ought to have spoken to Mrs. Vervain."

"Oh no," cried Florida, eagerly, springing to her feet beside him.
"Don't! Little things wear upon my mother, so. I'm glad you didn't
speak to her. I don't misunderstand you, I think; I expressed myself
badly," she added with an anxious face. "I thank you very much. What do
you want me to do?"

By Ferris's impulse they both began to move down the garden path toward
the water-gate. The sunset had faded out of the fountain, but it still
lit the whole heaven, in whose vast blue depths hung light whiffs of
pinkish cloud, as ethereal as the draperies that floated after Miss
Vervain as she walked with a splendid grace beside him, no awkwardness,
now, or self-constraint in her. As she turned to Ferris, and asked in
her deep tones, to which some latent feeling imparted a slight tremor,
"What do you want me to do?" the sense of her willingness to be bidden