timer, seriously.

"Oh, here we are at home!" exclaimed Iola. "This has been a glorious
evening, Doctor. I am indebted to you for a great pleasure. I am
extremely grateful."

"You are perfectly welcome," replied Dr. Latimer. "The pleasure has been
mutual, I assure you."

"Will you not come in?" asked Iola.

Tying his horse, he accompanied Iola into the parlor. Seating himself
near her, he poured into her ears words eloquent with love and
tenderness.

"Iola," he said, "I am not an adept in courtly phrases. I am a plain
man, who believes in love and truth. In asking you to share my lot, I am
not inviting you to a life of ease and luxury, for year after year I may
have to struggle to keep the wolf from the door, but your presence would
make my home one of the brightest spots on earth, and one of the fairest
types of heaven. Am I presumptuous in hoping that your love will become
the crowning joy of my life?"

His words were more than a tender strain wooing her to love and
happiness, they were a clarion call to a life of high and holy worth, a
call which found a response in her heart. Her hand lay limp in his. She
did not withdraw it, but, raising her lustrous eyes to his, she softly
answered: "Frank, I love you."

After he had gone, Iola sat by the window, gazing at the splendid stars,
her heart quietly throbbing with a delicious sense of joy and love. She
had admired Dr. Gresham and, had there been no barrier in her way, she
might have learned to love him; but Dr. Latimer had grown irresistibly
upon her heart. There were depths in her nature that Dr. Gresham had
never fathomed; aspirations in her soul with which he had never mingled.
But as the waves leap up to the strand, so her soul went out to Dr.
Latimer. Between their lives were no impeding barriers, no inclination
impelling one way and duty compelling another. Kindred hopes and tastes
had knit their hearts; grand and noble purposes were lighting up their
lives; and they esteemed it a blessed privilege to stand on the
threshold of a new era and labor for those who had passed from the old
oligarchy of slavery into the new commonwealth of freedom.

On the next evening, Dr. Latimer rang the bell and was answered by
Harry, who ushered him into the parlor, and then came back to the
sitting-room, saying, "Iola, Dr. Latimer has called to see you."

"Has he?" answered Iola, a glad light coming into her eyes. "Come,
Lucille, let us go into the parlor."

"Oh, no,"