"I wish," Gifford continued, hesitating, "you would not take such long walks by yourself.

Why don't you let Lois come with you ?" "She would not care to," she answered briefly.
"Oh, I think you are wrong there," he remonstrated.

"She is lonely, too." Helen seemed to consider.

"You know it has been an unhappy summer for Lois, and if you shut her out of your sorrow"-- "I did not mean to be selfish," she replied, not seeing how much Gifford spoke for her own sake, "and I do not shut her out; but so long as she only sympathizes with me, and not with John too, I cannot let her talk to me about it." "That is not quite just, Helen," he said; and afterward, Helen acknowledged this.
She put her hands into his, when he turned to go home, and searched his face with sad, eager eyes.

"You are going to see him,--oh, Giff, you'll see John!" she said.
Lois saw them talking, as they came to the rectory door, with a dull feeling of envy.