Mercy! you have not the least conception of what you are to me!" And
Stephen stretched out both his arms to her, with unspeakable love in the
gesture.

So swiftly that he had not the least warning of her intention, Mercy
threw herself into them, and laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing. Shame
filled her soul, and burned in her cheeks, when Stephen, lifting her as he
would a child, and kissing her forehead gently, placed her again in her
chair, and said,--

"My darling, I cannot let you do that. I will never ask from you any thing
that you can by any possibility come to regret at some future time. I
ought perhaps to be unselfish enough not to ask from you any thing at all.
I did not mean to; but I could not help it, and it is too late now."

"Yes, it is too late now," said Mercy,--"too late now." And she buried her
face in her hands.

"Mercy," exclaimed Stephen, in a voice of anguish, "you will break my
heart: you will make me wish myself dead, if you show such suffering as
this. I thought that you, too, could find joy, and perhaps help, in my
love, as I could in yours. If it is to give you pain and not happiness, it
were better for you never to see me again. I will never voluntarily look
on your face after to-night, if you wish it,--if you would be happier so."

"Oh, no, no!" cried Mercy. Then, overwhelmed with the sudden realization
of the pain she was giving to a man whom she so loved that at that moment
she would have died to shield him from pain, she lifted her face, shook
back the hair from her forehead, and, looking bravely into his eyes,
repeated,--

"No, no! I am very selfish to feel like this. I do understand you. I
understand it all; and I will help you, and comfort you all I can. And I
do love you very dearly," she added in a lower voice, with a tone of such
incomparable sweetness that it took almost superhuman control on Stephen's
part to refrain from clasping her to his heart. But he did not betray the
impulse, even by a gesture. Looking at her with an expression of great
thankfulness, he said,--

"I believe that peace will come to us, Mercy. I believe I can do something
to make you happy. To know that I love you as I do will be a great deal to
you, I think." He paused.

"Yes," answered Mercy, "a great deal." He went on,--

"And to know that you are perpetually helping and cheering me will be
still more to you, I think. We shall know some joys, Mercy, which joyous
lovers never know. Happy peopl