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Nancy had been storing up fidelity and affection deep, deep in the hive of her heart all these years, and now the honey of her helpfulness stood ready to be gathered.

“Could I keep hens in Detroit?” she asked. “I can always make them pay.”

“Hens–in three rooms, Nancy?”

Her face fell. “And no yard?”

“No yard.”

A moment’s pause, and then the smile came. “Oh, well, I’ve had yards and hens for thirty-five years. Doing without them will be a change. I can take in sewing.”

“No, you can’t, Nancy. I need your backbone and wits and pluck and ingenuity, but if I can’t ask you to sit with your hands folded for the rest of your life, as I’d like to, you shan’t use them for other people. You’re marrying me to make a man of me, but I’m not marrying you to make you a drudge.”

His voice rang clear and true in the silence, and Nancy’s heart vibrated at the sound.

“Oh, Justin, Justin!” she whispered. “There’s something wrong somewhere, but we’ll find it out together, you and I, and make it right. You’re not like a failure. You don’t even look poor, Justin; there isn’t a man in Edgewood to compare with you, or I should be washing his dishes and darning his stockings this minute. And I am not a pauper! There’ll be the rent of my little house and a carload of my furniture, so you can put the three-room idea out of your mind, and your firm will offer you a larger salary when you tell them you have a wife to take care of. Oh, I see it all, and it is as easy and bright and happy as can be!”

Justin put his arm around her and drew her close, with such a throb of gratitude for her belief and trust that it moved him almost to tears.

There was a long pause: then he said:–

“Now I shall call for you to-morrow morning after the last bell has stopped ringing, and we will walk up the aisle together and sit in the old Peabody pew. We shall be a nine-days’ wonder anyway, but this will be equal to an announcement, especially if you take my arm. We don’t either of us like to be stared at, but this will show without a word what we think of each other and what we’ve promised to be to each other, and it’s the only thing that will make me feel sure of you and settled in my mind after all these mistaken years. Have you got the courage, Nancy?”

“I shouldn’t wonder! I guess if I’ve had courage enough to wait for you, I’ve got courage enough to walk up the aisle with you and marry you besides!” said Nancy.–“Now it is too late for us to stay here any longer, and you must see me only as far as my gate, for perhaps you haven’t forgotten yet how interested the Brewsters are in their neighbours.”

They stood at the little Wentworth gate for a moment, hand close clasped in hand. The night was clear, the air was cold and sparkling, but with nothing of bitterness in it; the sky was steely blue and the evening star glowed and burned like a tiny sun. Nancy remembered the shepherd’s song she had taught the Sunday-school children, and repeated softly:–

For I my sheep was watching
Beneath the silent skies,
When sudden, far to eastward,
I saw a star arise;
Then all the peaceful heavens
With sweetest music rang,
And glory, glory, glory!
The happy angels sang.

So I this night am joyful,
Though I can scarce tell why,
It seemeth me that glory
Hath met us very nigh;
And we, though poor and humble,
Have part in heavenly plan,
For, born to-night, the Prince of Peace
Shall rule the heart of man.

Justin’s heart melted within him like wax to the woman’s vision and the woman’s touch.