ssissippi have."

Hope's tantalizing smile worried him. "I hope you are not secretly
engaged too!" he exclaimed.

"No, oh, no!" she answered quickly, before she thought.

"Or in love?" he asked seriously.

Haines had stood up and was now leaning intently over the table. He
realized the difference between the feeling he had had for Carolina
and the tender emotion that thrilled him as he thought of the sweet
girl before him. This time he knew he was not mistaken. He knew that
he truly loved Hope Langdon.

"Or in love?" he asked again, anxious at her silence.

Hope looked at him slowly. A faint blush illumined her face.

"Oh, don't let's talk about me," she exclaimed.

"But I want to talk about you," he cried. "I don't want to talk about
anything else. I must talk about you, and I'm going to talk whether
you want to hear or not. You've believed in me when nobody else
believed. You've fought for me when everybody else was fighting
against me. You've shown that you think I am honest and worthy of a
woman's faith. You fought your own family for me. Nobody has ever done
for me what you have, and--and--"

He faltered, full of what he was about to say.

"And you're grateful," she ended.

He looked her squarely in the eyes as though to fathom her thoughts.
Then he reached toward the girl and seized both her hands.

"Grateful nothing!" he cried. "I'm not grateful. I'm in love--in love
with you. I want you--want you as I never wanted anything or anybody
before, and I tell you I'm going to have you. Do you hear?"

Hope could not hide her agitation. The light in her eyes showed she
was all a woman.

[Illustration: THE LANGDON FAMILY.]

"Oh, nothing in the world could happen as quickly as that, Mr.
Haines!" she protested, with her last attempt at archness.

"Nothing could?" he threatened. "I'll show you."

He advanced quickly around the table, but the girl darted just beyond
his grasp. Then she paused--and her lover gathered her in his arms.

"Hope, my dear, you are my own," was all he could say as he bent over
to kiss the lips that were not refused to him.

Hope released herself from his fervent grasp.

"I love you, I do love you," she said fondly. "I believe in you, and
father must too. You've got to straighten this tangle out now, for my
sake as well as your own. Father will listen."

"It's all so strange, so wonderful, I can hardly understand it," began
Haines slowly, as he held the girl's hands.

Unkno