tion of Alice, whose name
was not spoken once during their journey together to Cincinnati, where
they parted company, Irving continuing his homeward route, while Hugh
stopped in the city to arrange a matter of business with his banker
there. It was not until Irving was gone and he alone in his room that he
opened the little note given him by Alice, the note which would tell him
of her approaching marriage, he believed. How then was he surprised when
he read:

"DEAR HUGH: I have at last discovered the mistake under which, for
so many years, I have been laboring. It was not Irving Stanley who
saved me from the water, but your own noble self, and you have
generously kept silent all this time, permitting me to expend upon
another the gratitude due to you.

"Dear Hugh, I wish I had known earlier, or that you did not leave
us so soon. It seems so cold, thanking you on paper, but I have no
other opportunity, and must do it here.

"Heaven bless you, Hugh. My mother prayed often for the preserver
of her child, and need I tell you that I, too, shall never forget
to pray for you? The Lord keep you in all your ways, and lead you
safely to your sister.

"ALICE"

Many times Hugh read this note, then pressing it to his lips thrust it
into his bosom, but failed to see what Alice had hoped he might see,
that the love he once asked for was his, and his alone. He was too sure
that another was preferred before him to reason clearly, and the only
emotions he experienced from reading her note were feelings of pleasure
that she had been set right at last, and that Irving had not withheld
from her the truth.

"That ends the drama," he said. "I don't quite believe she is going with
him to Europe, but she will be his when he returns; and henceforth my
duty must be to forget, if possible, that ever I knew I loved her. Oh,
Golden Hair, why did I ever meet, or meeting you, why was I suffered to
love her so devotedly, if I must lose her at the last!"

There were great drops of sweat about Hugh's lips and on his forehead,
as, burying his face in his hands, he laid both upon the table, and
battled manfully with his love for Alice Johnson, a love which refused
at once to surrender its object, even though there seemed no longer a
shadow of hope in which to take refuge.

"God, help me in my sorrow," was the prayer which fell from the
quivering lips, but did not break the silence of that little room, where
none, save G