Mrs. Dunlap was called upon to assent to the statement that common people were apt to have violent prejudices for which they could not account, and were the hardest persons on earth to move. Still, he would admit that in carrying out the program that followed he had acted upon sudden impulse rather than premeditated plans. When the time came for the lady to return home, Providence seemed to make a way for them to be happy. He need not explain that he had used no coercion in the matter; the lady realized only too certainly that her mother stood in the way of her happiness, and that if she had her way, the daughter would be entirely and forever separated from him. This, she felt that she could not endure, and they both believed that, when the irrevocable step was taken, the mother would have a return to common sense. So, in a moment, one might say, it was all arranged; indeed it almost arranged itself. He had a friend in the ministry at a town which was an important junction of the railroad, and to him, he sent a message planning all the necessary details; but for the horrible delay because of that disabled engine, everything would have been complete. But the delay and confusion and the necessity for their stopping overnight at a strange hotel had bewildered and frightened the girl, unused as she was to being alone, or to thinking and planning for herself. It was the knowledge of that, which had led him to make the mistake of registering as he did; he could now see that it was a mistake. He knew there was but one room to be had, and his only thought had been to secure privacy for her and the right to minister to her comfort. At the moment there seemed no other way; but he would admit that it had a bad look to others, who did not understand the situation. For himself these outward conventions never seemed of paramount importance so long as one understood one's self. He had not meant to tell the girl about it, because she, as a matter of course having such a mother, was terribly trammeled by conventions of all sorts and could not be made to understand that what was true IN SPIRIT was the same as truth.