e double libraries upstairs, whither he had been summoned by a note
from Kate, begging him to await her there.

His thoughts went back to that summer night less than six months gone,
when he had waited her coming in those very rooms. Not yet six months,
and he seemed to have lived years since then! He recalled her as she
appeared before him that night in all the grace and witchery of lovely
maidenhood just opening into womanhood. How beautiful, how joyous she
had been! without a thought of sorrow, and now----

A faint sound like the breath of the wind through the leaves roused him,
and Kate stood before him once more. Kate in her bridal robes, their
shimmering folds trailing behind her like the gleaming foam in the wake
of a ship on a moonlit sea, while her veil, like a filmy cloud,
enveloped her from head to foot.

There was a moment of silence in which Darrell studied the face before
him; the same, yet not the same, as on that summer night. The childlike
naivete, the charming piquancy, had given place to a sweet seriousness,
but it was more tender, more womanly, more beautiful.

She came a step nearer, and, raising her clasped hands, placed them
within Darrell's.

"I felt that I must see you once more, John," she said, in the low,
sweet tones that always thrilled his very soul; "there is something I
wish to say to you, if I can only make my meaning clear, and I feel sure
you will understand me. I want to pledge to you, John, for time and for
eternity, my heart's best and purest love. Though forced into this union
with a man whom I can never love, yet I will be true as a wife; God
knows I would not be otherwise; that is farthest from my thoughts. But I
have learned much within the past few months, and I have learned that
there is a love far above all passion and sensuality; a love tender as a
wife's, pure as a mother's, and lasting as eternity itself. Such love I
pledge you, John Darrell. Do you understand me?"

As she raised her eyes to his it seemed to Darrell that he was looking
into the face of one of the saints whom the old masters loved to portray
centuries ago, so spiritual was it, so devoid of everything of earth!

"Kathie, darling," he said, clasping her hands tenderly, "I do
understand, and, thank God, I believe I am able to reciprocate your love
with one as chastened and pure. When I left The Pines last fall I did so
because I could not any longer endure to be near you, loving you as I
did. I felt in