“I think so,” said Winifred reflectively.  “Then if somebody had met you when you had seen but one view of the mountain, and had described simply another—­”

“We should have quarreled!” said Adele.

CHAPTER XII

THE SOUL HEARS A CAUSE

Midsummer heat was advancing and the fashionable residents of the city where our story is located—­a city not too large, cleanly, healthful, and beautiful for situation—­found it necessary to leave town.  Mrs. Gray was among the number whose constitution demanded a change from the accustomed air and scene, and from the round of conventional home life to the equally conventional routine of life in a summer hotel.  At least, she supposed she required it.  And was it not the regular thing to do?  And had she not arranged with Mrs. Dr. Greene long ago that they should secure quarters together in the Loftimore House overlooking the blue waters of Silverguile Lake?  But when the last trunks were packed and, gone, and she looked around in the cool quiet of her own home, the soft eyes were troubled and she said to Winifred: 

“I wish I were not going, dear.  It is a trouble, after all.  And you are not going!  You will come for a little while, won’t you, child?” And she gave her an already homesick caress.

Winifred promised, if it could be arranged.  Mr. Gray and Hubert both found it impossible to leave but for a short time, and Winifred was glad of an excuse to stay with them, presiding in the quiet house with its summer lack of visitors and improved opportunity for her new and engrossing pursuit.  She would go on to know God better, as she found Him mirrored in the clear, still waters of His Word.

The days sped by all too rapidly.  Adele did not leave for the summer, and the two spent hours together, comparing impressions and experiences and the light gained upon the Scripture portions which they were reading simultaneously.  Then Winifred rehearsed to Hubert at night their discoveries and difficulties, and he added the wisdom given to him to their own.  Sometimes his sister quoted to him surprisingly original and apt comments from Adele and he wondered silently.  If he had wished to hear from the “sensible interior,” he now did so, and it spoke from the depths of a new spiritual insight.

George Frothingham continued to pay occasional court to his ladye faire.  The time for his customary holidays drew near, and as he arranged for a flying European trip which he had promised himself this year, it entered his heart to close the anticipated compact with Winifred for the life journey together.  Very sweet were the hopes which mingled with shrewd business calculations, and he congratulated himself on assured prospects.