Reuben advanced now and shook hands with both her and Jessica. For an instant the silence threatened to be embarrassing, and it was not wholly relieved when Tabitha presented him to Miss Minster, and that young lady bowed formally without moving in her chair. But the lawyer could not suspect the disagreeable thoughts which were chasing one another behind these two unruffled and ladylike fronts, and it was evident enough that his coming was welcome to the mistress of the little shop. “I have wanted to look in upon you before,” he said to Jessica, “and I am ashamed to think that I haven’t done so. I have been very much occupied with other matters. It doesn’t excuse me to myself, but it may to you.” “Oh, certainly, Mr. Tracy,” Jessica answered, and then realized how miserably inadequate the words were. “It’s very kind of you to come at all,” she added. Tabitha shot a swift glance at her companion, and the two ladies rose, as by some automatic mechanical device, absolutely together. “We must be going, Miss Lawton,” said the old maid, primly. A woman’s intuition told Jessica that something had gone wrong. If she did not entirely guess the nature of the trouble, it became clear enough on the instant to her that these ladies misinterpreted Reuben’s visit. Perhaps they did not like him--or perhaps--She stepped toward them and spoke eagerly, before she had followed out this second hypothesis in her mind. “If you have a moment’s time to spare,” she pleaded, “I _wish_ you would let me explain to Mr. Tracy the plan I have talked over with you. He was my school-teacher; he is my oldest friend--the only friend I had when I was--a--a girl, and I haven’t seen him before since the day I arrived home here. I should _so_ much like to have you hear his opinion. The lady I spoke of--Mrs. Fairchild--wrote to him about me. Perhaps he knows of the plan already from her.” Reuben did not know of the plan, and the two ladies consented to take seats again while it should be explained to him. Tabitha assumed a distant and uneasy expression of countenance, and looked straight ahead of her out through the glass door until the necessity for relief by conversation swelled up within her to bursting point; for Kate had rather flippantly deserted her, and so far from listening with haughty reserve under protest, had actually joined in the talk, and taken up the thread of Jessica’s stumbling explanation. The three young people seemed to get on extremely well together. Reuben fired up with enthusiasm at the first mention of the plan, and showed so plainly the sincerity of his liking for it that Miss Minster felt herself, too, all aglow with zeal. Thus taken up by friendly hands, the project grew apace, and took on form and shape like Aladdin’s palace.