at the Oakdale parsonage. She said nothing to Mr. Davis, for he,
being busy with theological works and charitable organizations, was
not considered a man from whom one might hope for proper ideas about
life. But with her own more practical husband she had frequently
discussed the danger, and the possible methods of warding it off.

To send Helen to a boarding school would have been of no use, for
the vacations were the times of danger; so it was that the trip
abroad was finally decided upon. Aunt Polly, having traveled
herself, had a wholesome regard for German culture, believing that
music and things of that sort were paying investments. It chanced,
also, that her own eldest daughter, who was a year older than Helen,
was about through with all that American teachers had to impart; and
so after much argument with Mr. Davis, it was finally arranged that
she and Helen should study in Germany together. Just when poor
Arthur was returning home with the sublime title of junior, his
dream of all things divine was carried off by Aunt Polly, and after
a summer spent in "doing" Europe, was installed in a girl's school
in Leipzig.

And now, three years having passed, Helen has left her cousin for
another year of travel, and returned home in all the glory of her
own springtime and of Nature's; which brings us to where we left
her, hurrying away to pay a duty call in the little settlement on
the hillside.

The visit had not been entirely a subterfuge, for Helen's father had
mentioned to her that the elderly person whom she had named to
Arthur was expecting to see her when she returned, and Helen had
been troubled by the thought that she would never have any peace