voice of Grace as the song progressed,
and when she reached the fourth stanza and sang:

"I never was worthy of you, Douglas,
Not half worthy the like of you;
Now, all men beside seem to me like shadows,--
I love you, Douglas, tender and true,"

the last words ended in a tone very much like a sob, and the singing
ceased.

Sedgwick had risen, and walked to the side of Grace while she sang. When
she ceased he said:

"That is a very touching song, Miss Grace. Your voice vibrates in it as
though your heart were heavy."

"It is," she frankly answered.

He bent and took an unresisting hand and said: "If you are in trouble,
may I not try to be your comforter?"

She rose from the piano, and looking up clear and brave into the eyes of
the young man, said: "You are most kind, but I cannot tell you why my
heart is heavy."

He looked down into her eyes for a moment and then said: "My heart is
likewise heavy, Miss Grace; may I tell you why?"

"Surely," she answered, "if you have a sorrow, and if there is any balm
in this household, it shall be yours."

He took her other hand, and drawing her gently toward him, said: "Come
near to me Miss Grace. I am involved in a trouble which I never dreamed
of when I came here. Mine has been a harsh life, but I have always tried
to meet my fate resignedly. Now I am overborne. Since the first hour I
met you, first looked into your divine face, first felt your hand-clasp
and heard your voice, my heart has been on fire. You have become my
divinity. I worship you. Oh, Grace, can you give me a thread, be it ever
so slight, out of which I may weave a hope that some time you will bend,
and sanctify my life by becoming my wife?"

As he spoke, over the pale face of Grace Meredith an almost imperceptible
glow spread, as when an incandescent lamp is lighted under a translucent
shade; her eyes grew moist, her lips quivered, she trembled in every
limb, and, suddenly dropping on her knees, drew his hands to her lips,
kissed them, and murmured: "O! my king!"

He caught her to him and cried: "Is it true? Is it true? Do you really
care for me?"

She looked up and said: "O, my blind darling, you are so very, very
blind! My soul has been calling to your soul since the first hour you
came."

Half an hour later Grace looked up and with a ravishing smile, said: "Do
you know, dearest, I believe all my heavy-heartedness is gone."

At last Sedgwick said: "My beautiful, what will your f