But the more I prayed, the more the temptation seemed thrust upon me.

The kinder, gentler, more attentive, grew his manners toward me.

He never treated me as a mere governess.

It was more like an equal at first, and then like a younger sister, so that few strangers took me for a subordinate, so kind were both Mrs.Ellsworth and her brother." "And he," the doctor gasped, looking wistfully in her face, "does he--do you think he loves you ?" Adah colored crimson, but answered frankly: "He never told me so; never said to me a word which a husband should not hear; but--sometimes I've fancied, I've feared, I've left him abruptly lest he should speak, for that I know would bring the crisis I so dreaded.

I must tell him the whole then, and by my dread of doing this, I knew he was more than a friend to me.