They were not long in reaching the edge of the wood-
land, from which there was an extended prospect. For
some little time they looked at the wide landscape in
silence. Alida gave to it only partial attention, for her
mind was very busy with thoughts suggested by her hus-
band's alienation from his neighbors. It would make it
easier for her, but the troubled query would arise, " Is it
right or best for him } His marrying me will separate
him still more."

Holcroft's face grew sad rather than troubled as he
looked at the old meeting house and not at the landscape.
He was sitting near the spot where he spent that long
forenoon a few Sundays before, and the train of thought
came back again. In his deep abstraction, he almost
forgot the woman near him in memories of the past.
238 HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE,

His old love and lost faith were inseparable from that
little white spire in the distance.
Alida stole a glance at him and thought, " He's think-
ing of her," and she quietly strolled away to look for
wild flowers.
"Yes," muttered Holcroft, at last, "I hope Bessie
knows. She'd be the first one to say it was right and
best for me, and she'd be ^ad to know that in securing
my own home and comfort I had given a home to the
homeless and sorrowful — a quiet, good woman, who
worships God as she did."

He rose and joined his wife, who held toward him a
handful of trailing arbutus, rue anemones, bloodroot, and
dicentras. " I didn't know they were so pretty before,"
he said with a smile.
