"Would it contribute to my happiness, do you think, to remember the sorrow and suffering which I was not allowed to share ?" "Could you not forget ?" "Never!" The young man sprang to his feet abruptly, his face working with emotion, and took two or three turns about the room.

At last he paused, directly in front of her, and, folding his arms, stood looking down into the beautiful eyes that met his own so unflinchingly.

He was outwardly calm, but the smouldering fire which seemed to gleam in his dark eyes told of intense mental excitement.
"Miss Carleton," he said, slowly, in low tones, but yet which vibrated through her whole being, "you are almost cruel in your kindness; you will yet make a coward of me!" "I have no fear of that," she answered, quietly.
"Yes, a coward! Instead of remaining silent as I intended, and keeping my trouble within my own breast, you will compel me in self-defence to say that which will only give you pain to hear, thereby adding to my own suffering." "Perhaps you misjudge," she replied, and her voice had a ring of pathos in it; "any word of explanation--no matter what--would be less hard for me to endure than this suspense." "God knows I would make full explanation if I could, but I cannot, and I fear there is nothing I can say that will not add to your suspense.

Miss Carleton, you must need no words from me to tell you that I love you.

I have loved you almost from the first day of our meeting, and whatever life may have in store for me, you, and you alone, will have my love.