eagle for an opportunity to swoop down and settle his talons.  Then, again, I understand from a reliable source that Mr. Denton’s wife is fast going insane from worry, and that his scapegrace son is growing gray-headed over the outlook for his fortune.  Again, Mr. Denton himself, who has wrought all these changes, is being looked upon by wise men as a driveling idiot, or, what is about as bad, a religious fanatic, whose sudden determination to be good has sealed the doom of his fortune.”

As Miss Dean was speaking she looked steadily at Faith.  She was watching to see if her words had any effect, or if the girl was really incapable of understanding the situation.

There was not a cloud of apprehension upon the fair girl’s brow, yet her eye was clear; she had comprehended every syllable.

“You approve of all this?” asked Miss Dean, in despair.

Faith’s answer was merely a verse of Scripture, which she repeated so firmly and with such intense eagerness that the low voice fairly vibrated with repressed emotion.

“And be ye not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your souls, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

“I am answered, as I fully expected to be,” said Miss Dean, quietly.  “It is positively wonderful, that faith of yours.  Why, it amounts to actual exaltation of spirit!”

She shook hands with Faith and said good-by.  They were the extremes of goodness, accomplishing the same ends, but each working on a theory incomprehensible to the other.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Faith visits Maggie.

The next few days were busy ones for Faith, for, besides her work at the store, she helped pack every evening, and tried in every way possible to enter into the spirit of the new arrangements for living, which her mother was planning so enthusiastically.

At last they were settled in a handsome flat in a neighborhood where Faith was not afraid to let either little Dick or her mother go out alone, and this one fact made her very happy.

Not a word had escaped her at the store about her altered conditions, neither had she spoken again to her mother regarding her uncle.

Mrs. Marvin told her sadly that he had gone abroad immediately after arranging the transfer of the $50,000 and settling all the details of her newly acquired fortune.  Faith breathed a sigh of relief, although she felt sorry for her mother.  It was evident that his humiliation was deep and genuine.

She frequently caught herself wondering about his changed name.  He was born a Courtleigh, yet he had signed himself “Deering.”

She decided at last that it was a purely personal matter.  Doubtless it was for some reason which she in her innocence would neither understand nor approve.

Other things which she could understand were claiming her attention, so that there was little time to spend in idle conjectures.