To Mildred the present was dark, and the future most unpromising; but deep in her heart nestled the sustaining thought that she was not unloved, not forgotten.  The will of others, not his own, kept her lover from her side.  His weaknesses were of a nature that awakened her pity rather than contempt.  If he had been a Hercules physically and a Bacon intellectually, but conceited, domineering, untruthful, and of the male flirt genus—­from such weaknesses she would have shrunk with intense repugnance.  Her friends thought her peculiarly gentle in disposition.  They did not know—­and she herself might rarely recognize the truth—­that she was also very strong; her strength on its human side consisted in a simple, unswerving fidelity to her womanly nature and sense of right; on the Divine side, God’s word was to her a verity.  She daily said “Our Father” as a little child.  Has the world yet discovered a purer or loftier philosophy?

CHAPTER VI

ROGER DISCOVERS A NEW TYPE

Young Atwood rose with a very definite purpose on the following morning.  For his mother’s sake he would be civil to their boarders, but nothing more.  He would learn just what they had a right to expect in view of their business relations, and having performed all that was “nominated in the bond,” would treat them with such an off-hand independence that they would soon become aware that he, Roger Atwood, was an entity that could exist without their admiring approval.  He meant that they should learn that the country was quite as large as the city, and that the rural peculiarities of Forestville were as legitimate as those which he associated with them, and especially with the young lady who had mistaken him for the hired man.  Therefore after his morning work in the barnyard he stalked to the house with the same manner and toilet as on the previous day.

But there were no haughty citizens to be toned down.  They were all sleeping late from the fatigues of their journey, and Mrs. Atwood said she would give the “men-folks their breakfast at the usual hour, because a hungry man and a cross bear were nigh of kin.”

The meal at first was a comparatively silent one, but Roger noted with a contemptuous glance that his sister’s hair was arranged more neatly than he had seen it since the previous Sunday, and that her calico dress, collar, and cuffs were scrupulously clean.

“Expecting company?” he asked maliciously.

She understood him and flushed resentfully.  “If you wish to go around looking like a scarecrow, that’s no reason why I should,” she said.  “The corn is too large for the crows to pull now, so if I were you I would touch myself up a little.  I don’t wonder that Miss Jocelyn mistook you for Jotham.”

“It’s well,” retorted Roger, with some irritation, “that your Miss Jocelyn has no grown brothers here, or you would come down to breakfast in kid gloves.  I suppose, however, that they have insisted on a tidy and respectful waitress.  Will you please inform me, mother, what my regulation costume must be when my services are required?  Jotham and I should have a suit of livery, with two more brass buttons on my coat to show that I belong to the family.”