rtake, I shall one day tell you
all that your friendship has been worth to me. If I fail, the
thought that you believe in me and trust me, while it will not be
all that I could wish, may be all that I can ask."

"And if you should fail," she queried, slowly, "would you give me
no opportunity to show you, and others, my confidence in you, even
then?"

"My dear Miss Carleton," he replied, in tones tremulous with
suppressed feeling, "much as I appreciate your kindness, I would
never, now or at any future time, willingly mar your life or your
happiness by asking you to share any burden which might be laid
upon me. I would at least leave you to go your way in peace, while
I went mine."

"And I?" she asked, reproachfully. "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. But, loving you as I do, could
I have looked forward to the present time, could I for one moment
have foreseen what was awaiting me, believe me, you should never
have known by