But one fine June morning there rumbled up to the door of our boarding-house a hack containing a lady inside and a trunk on the outside.  It was our friend the lady-patroness of Miss Iris, the same who had been called by her admiring pastor “The Model of all the Virtues.”  Once a week she had written a letter, in a rather formal hand, but full of good advice, to her young charge.  And now she had come to carry her away, thinking that she had learned all she was likely to learn under her present course of teaching.  The Model, however, was to stay awhile,—­a week, or more,—­before they should leave together.

Iris was obedient, as she was bound to be.  She was respectful, grateful, as a child is with a just, but not tender parent.  Yet something was wrong.  She had one of her trances, and became statue-like, as before, only the day after the Model’s arrival.  She was wan and silent, tasted nothing at table, smiled as if by a forced effort, and often looked vaguely away from those who were looking at her, her eyes just glazed with the shining moisture of a tear that must not be allowed to gather and fall.  Was it grief at parting from the place where her strange friendship had grown up with the Little Gentleman?  Yet she seemed to have become reconciled to his loss, and rather to have a deep feeling of gratitude that she had been permitted to care for him in his last weary days.

The Sunday after the Model’s arrival, that lady had an attack of headache, and was obliged to shut herself up in a darkened room alone.  Our two young friends took the opportunity to go together to the Church of the Galileans.  They said but little going,—­“collecting their thoughts” for the service, I devoutly hope.  My kind good friend the pastor preached that day one of his sermons that make us all feel like brothers and sisters, and his text was that affectionate one from John, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”  When Iris and her friend came out of church, they were both pale, and walked a space without speaking.

At last the young man said,—­You and I are not little children, Iris!

She looked in his face an instant, as if startled, for there was something strange in the tone of his voice.  She smiled faintly, but spoke never a word.

In deed and in truth, Iris,——­

What shall a poor girl say or do, when a strong man falters in his speech before her, and can do nothing better than hold out his hand to finish his broken sentence?

The poor girl said nothing, but quietly laid her ungloved hand in his,—­the little soft white hand which had ministered so tenderly and suffered so patiently.

The blood came back to the young man’s cheeks, as he lifted it to his lips, even as they walked there in the street, touched it gently with them, and said, “It is mine!”

Iris did not contradict him.