Then she sat down at his side, and, apparently forgetting Jim, talked long and tenderly of the past.  She remembered Mrs. Benedict so well!  And she had so many times carried flowers and placed them upon her grave!  She told him about the troubles in the town, and the numbers of poor people who had risked their little all and lost it in the great speculation; of those who were still hoping against hope that they should see their hard-earned money again; of the execrations that were already beginning to be heaped upon Mr. Belcher; of the hard winter that lay before the village, and the weariness of sympathy which had begun to tell upon her energies.  Life, which had been once so full of the pleasure of action and industry, was settling, more and more, into dull routine, and she could see nothing but trouble ahead, for herself and for all those in whom she was interested.

Mr. Benedict, for the first time since Jim had rescued him from the alms-house, became wholly himself.  The sympathy of a woman unlocked his heart, and he talked in his old way.  He alluded to his early trials with entire freedom, to his long illness and mental alienation, to his hopes for his boy, and especially to his indebtedness to Jim.  On this latter point he poured out his whole heart, and Jim himself was deeply affected by the revelation of his gratitude.  He tried in vain to protest, for Mr. Benedict, having found his tongue, would not pause until he had laid his soul bare before his benefactor.  The effect that the presence of the sympathetic woman produced upon his protege put a new thought into Jim’s mind.  He could not resist the conviction that the two were suited to one another, and that the “little woman,” as he tenderly called her, would be happier with the inventor than she would be with him.  It was not a pleasant thought, but even then he cast aside his selfishness with a great struggle, and determined that he would not stand in the way of an event which would crush his fondest hopes.  Jim did not know women as well as he thought he did.  He did not see that the two met more like two women than like representatives of opposite sexes.  He did not see that the sympathy between the pair was the sympathy of two natures which would be the happiest in dependence, and that Miss Butterworth could no more have chosen Mr. Benedict for a husband than she could have chosen her own sister.

Mr. Benedict had never been informed by Jim of the name of the woman whom he hoped to make his wife, but he saw at once, and with sincere pleasure, that he was in her presence; and when he had finished what he had to say to her, and again heartily expressed his pleasure in renewing her acquaintance, he rose to go.

“Jim, I will not cut your call short, but I must get back, to my room and prepare for to-morrow’s journey.  Let me leave you here, and find my way back to my lodgings alone.”

“All right,” said Jim, “but we ain’t goin’ home to-morrer.”