had not given them a thought these many years he might never think of her again therefore he wondered what could have put thoughts of this dead woman into his mind was it the sight of the ugly cottages about the market place without cleanliness and without light she had done nothing to the lives of these poor folk and it might mill the lake have been those cottages that had put thoughts of her into his mind or the cause might have been that lie was going to offer rose to his sister as music mistress but what connection between rose and this dead woman well he was going to propose rose to and the best line of argument would be that rose would cost less than anyone as highly qualified as she were always anxious to get things cheap but he must not let them get rose too cheap but the question of price wouldn t arise between him and would see the wrong he had done to rose was on his conscience and that he d never be happy until he had made � that was the light in which she would view the matter so it would be better to let things take their natural course and to avoid making plans the more he thought of what he should say to the less likely was he to speak and feeling that he had better rely on the inspiration of the moment he sought distraction from his errand by noting the beauty of the he had always liked the way the road dipped and then ascended to the principal street in the town there were some pretty houses in the dip � houses with narrow and long windows built no doubt in the beginning of the nineteenth century � and his ambition had once been to live in one of these houses the bridge was an century bridge with a foaming on the left and on the right there was a sentimental walk under trees and the ruined is showing against the sunset there were generally the lake some boys seated on the and their fishing rods were picturesque in the lingering light never had the gray mills seemed more melancholy more and he would have stopped the car so remote did they seem � so like things of long ago that time had from the stress and struggle of life at the corner of the main street was the house in which he had been born the business had passed into other hands but the old name � s stores � remained across the way were the butcher and the and a little higher up the inn at which the commercial lodged he remembered how their numerous leather trunks used to interest him and for a moment he stood a child again seeing them drive away on post cars there were a few more shops � very few � and then the town very quickly roofs gave way to cottages and of the same miserable kind that used to provoke his when he was a boy this sinful dislike of poverty he had overcome in early manhood a high religious enthusiasm had enabled him to overcome it but his instinctive dislike of the lowly life � intellectual as well as physical � gathered within these cottages seemed to have returned again and he asked himself if he were wanting in natural compassion if all that he had of goodness in him were a debt he owed to the church maybe it was in patience rather than in compassion that he was lacking and pursuing this idea he remembered the hopes he en the lake when he off a strip of ground in front of s house they were that his example might inspire others was perhaps more patient and he began to wonder if she had any definite aim in view and if the spectacle of the with its show of walking under the trees in the afternoon would eventually awaken some desire of refinement in the people if the money their farms now yielded would produce some sort of improvement in their cottages the removal of those dreadfully heavy smells and a longing for color that would find expression in the planting of flowers they gave their money willingly enough for the of their chapel for stained glass incense candles and for music and were it not for the services of the church he didn t know into what the people t have fallen the tones of the organ clear voices of singing a mass by must sooner or later inspire belief in the friendliness of pure air and the beauty of flowers flowers after ail are the only beautiful things within the reach of these poor people roses are happily within the reach of all there is nothing more entirely natural or charming in the life of man than his love of flowers it preceded his love of music no doubt an appreciation of something better in the way of art than a played on the pipes would follow close on the of the home rose was herself beautiful her personality was winning and charming her playing � above all her singing � might have inspired the people but she was the lake going to the the had got her it was a pity � and he remembered how angry mrs o s news had made him � that had said she could give rose more than she was earning in to come to the to teach music he didn t believe had ever said such a thing it mattered very little anyhow he the rose was going to get her and all he could do would be to make the best terms he could but he could not his thoughts to the present moment they would go back to the afternoon when he ran across the fields to ask rose if what mrs 