the waiting has brought us good of itself," she answered.
"Think of all you have accomplished,--I know better than you think, for
your father has kept me posted,--and better yet, what these years have
fitted you for accomplishing in the future! To me, that was the best
part of your work in your story. It was strong and cleverly told, but
what pleased me most was the evidence that it was but the beginning, the
promise of something better yet to come."

"If only I could persuade all critics to see it through your eyes!"
Darrell replied, with a smile.

"Do you wish to know," she asked, with sudden seriousness, "what will
always remain to me the noblest, most heroic act of your life?"

"Most assuredly I do," he answered, her own gravity checking the
laughing reply which rose to his lips.

"The fight you made and won alone in the mountains the day that you
renounced our love for honor's sake. I can see now that the stand you
took and maintained so nobly formed the turning-point in both our lives.
I did not look at it then as you did. I would have married you then and
there and gone with you to the ends of the earth rather than sacrifice
your love, but you upheld my honor with your own. You fought against
heavy odds, and won, and to me no other victory will compare with it,
since--

'greater they who on life's battle-field
With unseen foes and fierce temptations fight.'"

Darrell silently drew her nearer himself, feeling that even in this
foretaste of joy he had received ample compensation for the past.

A few days later there was a quiet wedding at the Springs. The beautiful
church on the mountain-side had been decorated for the occasion, and at
an early hour, while yet the robins were singing their matins, the
little wedding-party gathered about the altar where John Darrell Britton
and Kate Underwood plighted their troth for life. Above the jubilant
bird-songs, above the low, subdued tones of the organ, the words of the
grand old marriage service rang out with impressiveness.

Besides the rector and his wife, there were present only Mr. Underwood,
Mrs. Dean, and Mr. Britton. It had been Kate's wish, with which Darrell
had gladly coincided, thus to be quietly married, surrounded only by
their immediate relatives.

"Let our wedding be a fit consummation of our betrothal," she had said
to him, "without publicity, unhampered by conventionalities, so it will
always seem the sweeter and more sacred."

That