The first pocket-money she had been given she saved up, and before long

had enough to send the forty dollars to the address the man in the

wilderness had given her. But with it she sent no word. It was like her to

think she had no right.

She went out more and more with her grandmother among the fashionable old

families in Philadelphia society, though as yet she was not supposed to be

"out," being still in school; but in all her goings she neither saw nor

heard of George Trescott Benedict.

Often she looked about upon the beautiful women that came to her

grandmother's house, who smiled and talked to her, and wondered which of

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them might be the lady to whom his heart was bound. She fancied she must

be most sweet and lovely in every way, else such as he could not care for

her; so she would pick out this one and that one; and then, as some

disagreeableness or glaring fault would appear, she would drop that one

for another. There were only a few, after all, that she felt were good

enough for the man who had become her ideal.

But sometimes in her dreams he would come and talk with her, and smile as

he used to do when they rode together; and he would lay his hand on the

mane of her horse--there were always the horses in her dreams. She liked

to think of it when she rode in the park, and to think how pleasant it

would be if he could be riding there beside her, and they might talk of a

great many things that had happened since he left her alone. She felt she

would like to tell him of how she had found a friend in Jesus Christ. He

would be glad to know about it, she was sure. He seemed to be one who was

interested in such things, not like other people who were all engaged in

the world.

Sometimes she felt afraid something had happened to him. He might have

been thrown from that terrible train and killed, perhaps; and no one know

anything about it. But as her experience grew wider, and she travelled on

the trains herself, of course this fear grew less. She came to understand

that the world was wide, and many things might have taken him away from

his home.

Perhaps the money she had sent reached him safely, but she had put in no

address. It had not seemed right that she should. It would seem to draw

his attention to her, and she felt "the lady" would not like that. Perhaps

they were married by this time, and had gone far away to some charmed land

to live. Perhaps--a great many things. Only this fact remained; he never

came any more into the horizon of her life; and therefore she must try to

forget him, and be glad that God had given her a friend in him for her

time of need. Some day in the eternal home perhaps she would meet him and

thank him for his kindness to her, and then they might tell each other all

about the journey through the great wilderness of earth after they had

parted. The links in Elizabeth's theology had been well supplied by this

time, and her belief in the hereafter was strong and simple like a

child's.




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