Why, my dear girl--"he had taken her hand as she spoke and the pair rested on his knee--"do you think I am--No--you are too sensible a woman to think anything of the kind.

But that is not it, Corinne--something worries you;" he asked suddenly with a quick glance at her face.

"What is it?
You shall have the best in me, and Ruth will help too." Her fingers closed over his.

The touch of the young fellow, so full of buoyant strength and hope and happiness, seemed to put new life into her.
"I don't know, Jack." Her voice fell to a whisper.

"There may not be anything, yet I live under an awful terror.