interposed Harry, shrugging his shoulders and catching
Lucille's hand. "He didn't ask for you. When we went to the concert we
were told three's a crowd. And I say one good turn deserves another."

"Oh, Harry, you are so full of nonsense. Let Lucille go!" said Iola.

"Indeed I will not. I want to have a good time as well as you," said
Harry.

"Oh, you're the most nonsensical man I know," interposed Miss Delany.
Yet she stayed with Harry.

"You're looking very bright and happy," said Dr. Latimer to Iola, as she
entered.

"My ride in the park was so refreshing! I enjoyed it so much! The day
was so lovely, the air delicious, the birds sang so sweetly, and the
sunset was so magnificent."

"I am glad of it. Why, Iola, your home is so happy your heart should be
as light as a school-girl's."

"Doctor," she replied, "I must be prematurely old. I have scarcely known
what it is to be light-hearted since my father's death."

"I know it, darling," he answered, seating himself beside her, and
drawing her to him. "You have been tried in the fire, but are you not
better for the crucial test?"

"Doctor," she replied, "as we rode along yesterday, mingling with the
sunshine of the present came the shadows of the past. I was thinking of
the bright, joyous days of my girlhood, when I defended slavery, and of
how the cup that I would have pressed to the lips of others was forced
to my own. Yet, in looking over the mournful past, I would not change
the Iola of then for the Iola of now."

"Yes," responded Dr. Latimer, musingly,

"'Darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day.'"

"Oh, Doctor, you cannot conceive what it must have been to be hurled
from a home of love and light into the dark abyss of slavery; to be
compelled to take your place among a people you have learned to look
upon as inferiors and social outcasts; to be in the power of men whose
presence would fill you with horror and loathing, and to know that there
is no earthly power to protect you from the highest insults which brutal
cowardice could shower upon you. I am so glad that no other woman of my
race will suffer as I have done."

The flush deepened on her face, a mournful splendor beamed from her
beautiful eyes, into which the tears had slowly gathered.

"Darling," he said, his voice vibrating with mingled feelings of
tenderness and resentment, "you must forget the sad past. You are like a
tender lamb snatched from the jaws of a hungry