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218 RAINBOW VALLEYthat word "suitable." It reminded him so stronglyof James Perry."A suitable, woman of suitable, age,"that unctuous brother of the cloth had said,in his farfrom subtle hint. For the moment John Meredithhad had a perfectly unbelievable desire to rush madlyaway and propose marriage to the youngest, mostunsuitable woman it was possible to discover.Mrs. Marshall Elliott was his good friend and heliked her. But when she had bluntly told him heshould marry again he felt as if she had torn awaythe veil that hung before some sacred shrine of hisinnermost life, and he had been more or less afraidof her ever since.He knew there were women in hiscongregation "of suitable age" who would marry himquite readily. That fact had seeped through all hisabstraction very early in his ministry in Glen St. Mary.They were good, substantial, uninteresting women,one or two fairly comely, the others not exactly so;and John Meredith would as soon have thought ofHemarrying any one of them as of hanging himself.had some ideals to which no seeming necessity couldmake him false. He could ask no woman to fillin his home unless he could offer her atCecilia's placeleast some of the affection and homage he had givento his girlish bride. And where, in his limited feminineacquaintance, was such a woman to be found ?Rosemary West had come into his life on thatautumn evening bringing with her an atmosphere inwhich his spirit recognized native air.Across the gulf