It was a sorry night for us."

"Yes, the storm has cleared away."

He did not seem to heed what she said.

"How long have you been up?"

"Since it happened. After I saw father up stairs, I came down and found
you here asleep. And Elmer--forgive me--it was wrong, but I did not mean
to stay here so long----"

"Alma!"

"You will pardon me?"

"Oh! Pardon you--pardon you--why should I? I dreamed the angels watched
me."

"I was anxious, and we owe you so much. We can never reward you--never!"

"Reward, Alma! I want none--save----"

"Save what?"

He opened his arms wide. A new and beautiful light came into her eyes.

"Can there be greater reward than love?"

"No. Love is the best reward--and it is yours."

CHARLES BARNARD.

THE MURDER OF MARGARY.

Our own politics have so absorbed the attention of the press and the
public for the last six months, that events of decided international
prominence have attracted merely a brief notice, instead of the careful
discussion which their importance warranted. Even the "Eastern
question," that has so long kept the European world in a state of
excitement and anxiety almost as intense and even more painful than that
in which our own country is now plunged, excited but a fitful interest
here. It was only by an effort that we could extend our political
horizon as far east as Constantinople. All beyond was comparative
darkness. In this darkness, however, history has gone steadily on
accumulating new and important data, which must be taken note of if we
would keep up with the record of the times.

The term "Eastern question" has come to mean the political complications
arising from the presence of the Turkish empire in Europe. The
expression might much more appropriately be applied to the serious
difficulties that have for the last year and a half existed between the
governments of England and China, and which have, as it now appears,
been brought to a reasonably satisfactory conclusion. These difficulties
sprang out of the murder of an English subject, Augustus Raymond Margary
by name, who was travelling in an official capacity in a remote part of
the Chinese empire. They were still further complicated by an almost
simultaneous attack upon a British exploring expedition that had just
crossed the Chinese frontier from Burmah, with the intention of
surveying and opening up to trade an overland route between that country
and the Middle Kingdom