"I like that," said Helen, nodding her head approvingly. Ray jumped up to conceal her embarrassment. "Oh, how terribly serious you two are to-day!" she exclaimed. "I declare I'll run away unless you cheer up a bit. Suppose I get some tea?" "Excellent idea!" laughed the lawyer. Ray touched a bell, and went to clear a small side table, which she drew up near where they were sitting. "There!" she exclaimed, smiling roguishly at the lawyer. "Don't you think I'm smart?" "Of course we do." Lowering his voice he added significantly: "At least I do." Apparently the compliment fell on deaf ears, for, turning her head away, she said quickly: "Please don't be sarcastic." More seriously, and in the same tone, that even Helen, who was only a short distance away, could not hear, he said: "I'm never sarcastic. I think you are all a woman should be." "Do you mean that?" "I do. I have thought it for a long time." "Really?" "Really." The young girl colored with pleasure. For all her sophisticated and independent manner she was still a child at heart. She had no thoughts of marriage, but it flattered her to think that she had the power to attract and interest this serious, brilliant man of the world. She said nothing more, relapsing into a meditative silence as she busied herself helping the maid to set out the tea table. To Helen it was a source of keen satisfaction to notice the attention which the brilliant young lawyer was paying her sister. She had long recognized his sterling qualities. He was a man of whom any woman might well be proud. He could not but make a good husband. Next to Kenneth and her baby no one was dearer to her than Ray and, since their mother died, she had felt a certain sense of responsibility. To see her well and happily married was the one secret wish of her life. But overshadowing these preoccupations at present were those other new anxieties which preyed upon her sensitive mind with all the force of an obsession. Was there any part of her husband's life that he had hidden from her? Was he really as loyal as she had always fondly and blindly believed; had his ambition led him to take grave financial risks that might one day jeopardize their comfort and happiness, the very future of their child? Ray rose to put away the tea table, and she found herself sitting alone with the lawyer. There was a moment's silence, and then, as if thinking out aloud what was on her mind, she said: "Thank God, he's safe; I had the most fearful premonitions----" The lawyer laughed. "Don't put your trust in premonitions--things happen or they don't happen. It's absurd to believe that misfortunes are all prepared beforehand." "Then you are not a fatalist?" "Decidedly not. I hope I have too much intelligence to believe in anything so foolish." "Do you believe in a Supreme Being who has the same power to suddenly snuff us out of existence as he had to create us?"