“The street is no place for you to take recreation in after nightfall; and where else you can go unattended I’m sure I don’t know.  If there is any place, I’ll find out, for I intend to study this city from top to bottom.  A lawyer is bound to know life as it is, above all things.  But you needn’t worry about this question in the abstract any more.  I’ll see that you have a good time occasionally.  You sister will not go with me, at least not yet—­perhaps never—­but that is not my fault.  I’ve only one favor to ask of you, Belle, and I’ll do many in return.  Please never, by word, or even by look, make my presence offensive or obtrusive to Miss Mildred.  If you will be careful I will not prove so great an affliction as she fears.”

“Roger Atwood, do you read people’s thoughts?”

“Oh, no, I only see what is to be seen, and draw my conclusions,” he said, a little sadly.

“Well, then, if you can have the tact and delicacy to follow such good eyesight, you may fare better than you expect,” she whispered at the chapel door.

He turned toward her with a quick flash, but she had stepped forward into the crowd passing through the vestibule.  From that moment, however, a ray of hope entered his heart, and in quiet resolve he decided to conform his tactics to the hint just received.

Mrs. Jocelyn and Mildred followed half a block away, and the former said to her daughter:  “There they go, Millie, chattering together like two children.  You surely take this affair too seriously.  His sudden and boyish infatuation with you was the most natural thing in the world.  He had never seen a girl like you before, and you awoke him into something like manhood.  Very young men are prone to fall in love with women older than themselves, or those who seem older, and speedily to fall out again.  Martin has often said his first flame is now a gray-headed lady, and yet he was sure at one time he never could endure life without her.  You know that I consoled him quite successfully,” and Mildred was pleased to hear the old, sweet laugh that was becoming too rare of late.  Even now it ended in a sigh.  Mr. Jocelyn was losing his resemblance to the man she had accepted in those bright days that now seemed so long ago.

“I hope you are right, mamma.  It seems as if I ought to laugh at the whole affair and good-naturedly show him his folly, but for some reason I can’t.  He affects me very strangely.  While I feel a strong repulsion, I am beginning to fear him—­to become conscious of his intensity and the tenacity and power of his will.  I didn’t understand him at first, and I don’t now, but if he were an ordinary, impulsive young fellow he would not impress me as he does.”

“Don’t you think him true and good at heart?”

“I’ve no reason to think him otherwise.  I can’t explain to you how I feel, nor do I understand it myself.  He seems the embodiment of a certain kind of force, and I always shrank from mere force, whether in nature or people.”