with her daily, and it is a rich reward."

Henry asked no further question, but he felt more than a passing
interest in what he had heard. In the course of a week, Mary
returned to Lowell and he went back to Boston.

Three months afterwards, Mary again came home to visit her parents,
and again called upon Mr. Green to pay over to him what she had been
able to save from her earnings. It so happened that Henry Green was
on a visit from Boston, and that he met her, as before, as she was
retiring from the house of his father. This time he spoke to her and
renewed their old acquaintance, even going so far as to walk a
portion of the way home with her. At the end of another three
months, they met again. Brief though this meeting was, it left upon
the mind of each the other's image more strongly impressed than it
had ever been. In the circle where Henry Green moved in Boston, he
met many educated, refined, and elegant young women, some of whom
had attracted him strongly; but, in the humble Mary Bacon, whose
station in life was that of a toiling factory girl, he saw a moral
beauty whose light threw all the allurements presented by these
completely into shadow.

Six months went by. Henry Green had been admitted to the bar, and
was now a practising attorney in Boston. It was in the pleasant
month of June and he had come home to spend a few weeks with his
family. One morning, a day or two after his return, as he sat
conversing with his father, the form of some one darkened the door.

"Ah Mary!" said the elder Mr. Green rising and taking the hand of
Mary Bacon, which he shook warmly. "My son, Henry," he added,