.

"What will you do with me? I am yours."

"Wait for you."

"You need not wait, if it be your will."

"It is not my will that we ever part. Nor shall we, wedded or not. Yet
we must wait our wedded happiness."

"You need not, Carus."

"I know it and I wait."

"So then--so then you hold me innocent--you raise me back to the high
place I fell from, blinded by love----"

"You never fell from your high place, Elsin."

"But my unpardonable sin----"

"What sin? The evil lies with him."

"Yet, wedded, I sought you--I loved you--I love you now--I offer my
amends to you--myself to do with as it pleases you."

"Sweetheart, you could not stir from the high place where you reign
enthroned though I and Satan leagued to pull you down. I, not you, owe
the amends; I, not you, await your pleasure. Yours to command, mine to
obey. Now, tell me, love, where my honor lies?"

"Linked with mine, Carus."

"And yours?"

"In the high places, where I sit unsullied, waiting for you."

For a long while we stood there together at the window. Candle-light
faded from the dim casements of the shops; the patrol passed, muskets
glittering in the starlight, and the tavern lamp went out.

And when the last tap-room loiterer had slunk away to camp or cabin,
and when the echo of the patrol's tread had died out in the fragrant
darkness, came one to the door below, hammering the knocker; and I saw
his spurs and scabbard shining in the luster of the stars, and in my
heart a still voice repeated, "This is Destiny came a-knocking, armed
with Fate. This is the place and the hour!"

And it was so, for presently the landlord came to the door, calling me
softly. "I come," I answered, and turned to Elsin. "Shall I to-morrow
find you the same sweet maid I have loved from the first all
blindly?--the same dear tyrant, plaguing me, coaxing me, blaming,
praising, unreasoning, inconstant--the same brave, impulsive, loyal
friend that one day, God willing, shall become my wife?"

"Yes, Carus."

We kissed one another; hands tightened, lingered, and fell apart. And
so I went away down the dim stairs, strangely aware that Destiny was
waiting there for me. And it was, shaped like Colonel Hamilton, who
rose to meet me, offering the hand of Fate; and I took it and held it,
looking him straight between the eyes.

"I know why you have come," I said, smiling. "I am to journey north and
move heaven and earth to thwart this hell's menace flung at us by
Walte