ine?"

"Ned Elliott told me she had been studying with Dr. Parker for about a
year."

"Dr. Parker tells me she is making remarkable progress."

"I don't doubt it, mother; she will probably make a success of it; she
is just the woman to do so."

"There never was any mention of love between you two, was there, or any
engagement?" Darrell's mother asked, with some hesitation, after a brief
silence.

"None whatever," he replied, then added, with a smile: "We considered
ourselves in love at the time,--at least, I did; but as I look back now
it seems a very Platonic affair; but I thought I loved her, and I think
she loved me."

"You say, Darrell, that your regard for her is unchanged?"

"Yes; the same as ever."

"But you do not think now that you love her or loved her then?"

"No, mother; I know I do not, and did not."

"Then, Darrell, my boy, some one else has taught you what love really
is?"

For answer Darrell bowed his head in assent over his mother's hand.

For a few moments she silently stroked his hair as in his boyish days;
then she said, in low tones,--

"Answer me one question, Darrell: Was she a good, pure woman?"

Darrell raised his head, his eyes looking straight into the searching
dark eyes, so like his own.

"My little mother," he replied, tenderly, "don't think that your
teachings all the past years or the lessons of your own sweet life were
lost in those two years; their influence lived even when memory had
failed."

He bent and kissed her, then added: "She was scarcely more than a child;
not so brilliant, perhaps, as Marion, but beautiful, good, and pure as
the driven snow."

Hearing his father's voice outside, Darrell rose and, picking up his
journal, opened it at the story of his love and Kate's. Then placing it
open upon a table beside his mother, he said,--

"There, mother, is the story of my Dream-Love, as I call her. Read it,
and if you should wish to know anything further regarding it, ask my
father, for he knows all."

_Chapter XXXII_

MARION HOLMES

The following day when Darrell entered his mother's rooms he found her
with his journal lying open before her. Looking up with a smile, she
said,--

"Darrell, my dear, I would like to meet your 'Kathie,' but that can
never be in this world. But you will meet her again, and when you do,
give her a mother's love and blessing from me."

Then, laying her hand on his arm, she added: "I understand now your
question rega