_A New Cross Taken up and an Old Enemy Forgiven_ Christina would now be left alone with the cares of the house, and he knew he ought to have some one to help her.

The fever of sacrifice was also upon him.

And so he found another derelict, to whom he was sealed forever.
At a time of more calmness he might have balked at this one.

She was a cross, to be sure, and it was now his part in life to bear crosses.

But there were plenty of these, and even one vowed to a life of sacrifice, he suspected, need not grossly abuse the powers of discrimination with which Heaven had seen fit to endow him.