A few weeks after the minister had preached this sermon on charity and love, Robert was in church one morning, and after Sunday School, was talking with Caroline Oglethorpe, and with her was her chum, Marie Stanton. Walter introduced Robert to Marie. Marie was the daughter of a wealthy and prominent family. Her father, Colonel Stanton, had made a fortune in building railroads. He was now a big lumberman, and one of the most prominent in Texarkana. Marie was a beautiful young girl of about thirteen years of age when Robert met her. She was of the true brunette type, with glossy black hair and dark eyes that sparkled like diamonds. About this time, Robert began to read novels and love stories and became very much interested in them, always taking strong sides with the hero and becoming very much agitated and aroused against the villain. He saw Marie frequently after this, as she attended the same school as Robert and Walter. Every time that Robert saw Marie, she looked more beautiful to him. Robert soon began to lose sleep thinking about Marie, and realized that love was the greatest thing in the world. He confided his secret to his friend, Walter. Being very bashful, he had never said anything about his love to Marie. Finally he made up his mind one night that he would write her about it, so this is what he wrote: Wednesday Eve. DEAR MARIE, You probably remember several weeks ago, when I was introduced to you in church, the sermon that the minister preached and his text from St. Paul where he said, "The greatest thing in the world is love." I agree with St. Paul; that is why I am writing to you. I liked you the first time I met you, and every time I have seen you since, I have liked you more. Now that I know I love you so much, I feel that I must tell you. I hope that you are going to love me some day. Your friend, Robert. Marie replied to the letter as follows: Dear Robert, I received your nice note. This is the first time that anyone has ever written to me about love and I am all excited over it. I never thought that you liked me, Bobbie. I always thought that you were making eyes at Kitty Anderson in school. I do like you and think that you are a nice boy. Yours, Marie. When Robert read the last line, he felt his heart jump right up in his throat. His hopes and ambitions soared higher than they had ever before. He began to dream of the future with Marie as his wife. He talked of his plans to Walter, and his hope of being a great inventor some day and making a lot of money so that he could marry a wealthy girl like Marie.