e like you dream today----"

The girl slipped her arms around the drooping, pathetic figure and
stroked it tenderly.

"The sunshine is for some, maybe," Ella went on pathetically; "for some
the clouds and the storms. I hope you are very, very happy today and all
the days----"

"I will be, Ella, I'm sure. I'll always love you after this."

"Maybe I make you sad because I tell you----"

"No--no! I'm glad you told me. The knowledge of your sorrow will make my
life the sweeter. I shall be more humble in my joy."

It never occurred to the girl for a moment that this lonely, broken
woman had torn her soul's deepest secret open in a last pathetic effort
to warn her of the danger of her marriage. The wistful, helpless look
in her eye meant to Mary only the anguish of memories. Each human heart
persists in learning the big lessons of life at first hand. We refuse to
learn any other way. The tragedies of others interest us as fiction. We
make the application to others--never to ourselves.

Jim's familiar footstep echoed through the hall, and Mary sprang to the
door with a cry of joy.

CHAPTER X. THE WEDDING

Ella hurried into the kitchenette and busied herself with dinner. Jim's
unexpectedly early arrival broke the spell of the tragedy to which Mary
had listened with breathless sympathy. Her own future she faced without
a shadow of doubt or fear.

Her reproaches to Jim were entirely perfunctory, on the sin of his early
call on their wedding-day.

"Naughty boy!" she cried with mock severity. "At this unseemly hour!"

He glanced about the room nervously.

"Anybody in there?"

He nodded toward the kitchenette.

"Only Ella----"

"Send her away."

"What's the matter?"

"Quick, Kiddo--quick!"

Mary let Ella out from the little private hall without her seeing Jim,
and returned.

"For heaven's sake, man, what ails you?" she asked excitedly.

"Say--I forgot that thing already. We got to go over it again. What if I
miss it?"

"The ceremony?"

"Yep----"

He mopped his brow and looked at his watch.

"By the time we get to that preacher's house, I won't know my first name
if you don't help me."

Mary laughed softly and kissed him.

"You can't miss it. All you've got to do is say, `I will' when he asks
you the question, put the ring on my finger when he tells you, and
repeat the words after him--he and I will do the rest."

"Say my question over again."

"`Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded w