h quickened throbs on account of it.

Reaching their favorite nook, Sir William gently seated his companion, and
then stood looking down upon her a moment without speaking.

Then he spoke, and there was a tenderer note in his voice than she had
ever heard before.

"Virgie," he said, "have you ever wondered why I came here and turned
miner?"

She looked up quickly as he spoke her name thus for the first time, then
her eyes suddenly drooped beneath the look in his.

"Yes, I have thought it a little singular that you should choose just this
work and this locality," she answered, in a low tone.

"May I tell you why I came?" seating himself at her side.

"Certainly, if you like."

"It was because I found here the only woman whom I could ever love.
Virgie, you are that woman, and my heart told me on that first evening
when I came to you, cold, wet, and hungry, that I must win your love or my
future would be void and desolate. So I seized upon the first reasonable
pretext I could find for remaining, and that, you know, your father
offered me in disposing of his claim. Sometimes I have hoped that you were
learning to love me in return; sometimes I have feared that I should not
succeed in this, the dearest object of my life. My darling, I resolved
to-night that I would put my fate to the test. Will you give yourself to
me for all time, my beautiful mountain queen? Do you love me well enough,
dear, to put your hand in mine and tell me that you will go with me
wherever I will, as my loved and cherished wife?"

Virginia Abbot sat there, her perfect form outlined against the dark,
moss-grown rock that arose, rugged and grand, behind her. The softened
light, as it fell upon her through the boughs of the tree above her, made
her seem like some exquisite picture painted by a master-hand. Her hands,
white as Parian marble, were quietly folded in her lap, but her heart was
in a tumult of joy, and her color came and went in fitful flushes.

She knew that she deeply loved this grand man, who had come to her
mountain home in the early summer time, and she felt that earth could hold
no higher happiness for her than to become his wife and go with him
whithersoever he willed. But she knew, too, that her first duty lay with
her father; that she must have no interests that would interfere with the
care and attention which she owed to him in his failing condition.

"Virgie, you will not crush the sweet hope that has been taking root in