Arnold walked beside his companion, his hands loosely clasped behind him, with the air of semi-detachment that young clergymen sometimes have with their wives.  Whether it was that, or the trace of custom his satisfaction carried, the casual glance might easily have taken them for a married pair.

“There is a kind of folly and stupidity in saying it,” he said, “but you have done—­you do—­a great deal for me.”

She turned her tired face upon him with a wistful, measuring look.  It searched his face for an instant and came back baffled.  Arnold spoke with so much kindness, so much appreciation.

“Very little,” she said mechanically, looking at the fresh footprints of Sister Ann Frances and Sister Margaret.

“But I know.  And can’t you tell me—­it would make me so very happy—­that I have done something for you too—­something that you value?”

Hilda’s eyes lightened curiously, reverie came into them, and a smile.  She answered as if she spoke to herself, “I should not know how to tell you.”

Then, scenting wonder in him, she added, “You were thinking of something—­in particular.”

“You have sometimes made me believe,” Stephen returned, “that I may account myself, under God, the accident which induced you to take up your blessed work.  I was thinking of that.”

“Oh,” she said, “of that!” and seemed to take refuge in silence.

“Yes,” Arnold said, with infinite gentleness.

“Oh, you were profoundly the cause!  I might say you are, for without you I doubt whether I should have the—­courage——­”

“Oh, no!  Oh, no!  He who inspired you in the beginning will sustain you to the end.  Think that.  Believe that.”

“Will He?” Her voice was neutral, as if it would not betray too much, but there was a listlessness that spoke louder in the bend of her head, the droop of her shoulder.

“For you perhaps,” Arnold said, thoughtfully, “there is only one assurance of it—­the satisfaction your vocation brings you now.  That will broaden and increase,” he went on, almost with buoyancy, “growing more and more your supreme good as the years go on.”

“How much you give me credit for!”

“Not nearly enough—­not nearly.  Who is there like you?” he demanded, simply.

His words seemed a baptism.  She lifted up her face after them, and the trace of them was on her eyes and lips.  “I have passed two examinations, at all events,” she informed him, with sudden gaiety, “and Sister Ann Frances says that in two or three months I shall probably get through the others.  Sister Ann Frances thinks me more intelligent than might be expected.  And if I do pass those examinations I shall be what they call a quick-time probationer.  I shall have got it over in six months.  Do you think,” she asked, as if to please herself, “that six months will be long enough?”

“It depends.  There is so much to consider.”