rone?"

He caught her to his breast and folded her to his heart. In the
heaven of his faithful love she felt, at least, safe from her own
lurid passion, and at rest from the biting remarks of her little
world.

CHAPTER VI.

It was the night of Christmas Eve and the snow fell thick and fast.
This weather, so unusual in the Channel Isles, had delayed Perrin
Corbet in the little town of Saint Pierre Port, and it was past ten
o'clock when he reached home. His mother had gone to bed, but not
before she had prepared her son's supper and left the little kitchen
the picture of comfort. After his meal, Perrin turned the lamp low,
lit his pipe, and sat down in his mother's arm-chair before the
_vraicq_ fire. The wind moaned in the huge chimney, with a cradling
sound, but Perrin was not in the least inclined to sleep. To-morrow
would be his wedding day. He could not realize it; he could not
believe he would so soon reach the height of joy. He tried to
picture to-morrow. Ellenor, in the white gown she had described to
him, would stand before the altar, and he, her devoted lover, would
take her hand and declare, before God and before the world, that she
was to be his wife.

Then, the rest of the day would be spent in quiet joy at Les
Casquets Cottage, with his mother as the only guest of the Cartiers.
He pictured the moment when he would say, taking out his watch,
"Now, mother, now, Ellenor, it is time for us to go home."

He would light the lantern, and with those two women, so dear, so
precious, he would return to this very cottage, henceforth to be a
palace to him, since Ellenor, his queen, would be his wife. He would
deal so tenderly with her, for she had suffered much, his poor
Ellenor! He would never reproach her if she seemed to fret after
Dominic. She could not uproot, all at once, such a deep love. He
would lead her gently back to the ways of religion which she had
deserted. He would remind her, one quiet evening, that she was of
those who were admitted to The Holy Supper of the Lord, for had she
not been confirmed at the same time as he had? And, please God, she
would listen to him. Perhaps, in days to come, she would learn to
love him a little. Perhaps that joy would be his when baby hands
clasped his rough brown fingers and a rosy baby mouth kissed his
adoring lips!

His pipe was out; and his head was bent as he dreamed of the morrow,
his wedding day. For a moment, the wind had ceased its moaning and a