brother and sister together.

Two days after this scene in Elsie's chamber, Elizabeth Fuller stood in
one of the parlors of the establishment with her hand locked in that of
Grantley Mellen; startled, trembling, almost terrified by the great
happiness that had fallen upon her. He had asked her tenderly,
earnestly, and with a thrill of passion in his voice, to become his
wife.

The girl had not answered him: she literally could not speak; her large
gray eyes were lifted to his, wild with astonishment one moment, soft
with exquisite love light the next.

"Will you not speak to me?"

She attempted to answer him, but smiles rather than words parted her
lips; and tears, soft as dew, flooded the joy in her eyes. What did the
man want of words after that?

They sat down together on the nearest couch, and scarcely knowing how,
she found her heart so close to his, that the two seemed beating
together in a wild, sweet tumult. The glow of his first kiss was on her
lips; he was telling her in earnest, broken words, how fondly, how
dearly he loved her. Nobly would she feel herself mated when she became
the mistress of his home.

There was something besides smiles on those beautiful lips now. The
heart has its own language, and in that she had answered him.

"Do I love you?" she said; "who could help it? Is there a woman on earth
who could refuse such happiness? I forget myself, forget everything,
even the poor pride that might have struggled a little against the
disparity between us which seems lost to me now. I did not think it
would be so sweet to accept everything and give nothing."

"You certainly love me and no other living man!" he said in answer to
her sweet trustfulness. "Tell me that in words! tell me in looks! Make
me sure of it."

"Love you! Indeed, indeed I do. Never in my life have I given a thought
of such feelings to any man. If you can find happiness in owning every
pulse of a human soul, it is yours."

"I believe it and accept the happiness; now my wife--for in a few weeks
you must be that--let us go up to Elsie. She must be made happy also,
for the dear child loves you scarcely less than I do."

A thought of something like shame shot through the joy of the moment,
with Elizabeth. Had Elsie suggested this?

"Will she be pleased? Will she be surprised?"

"I hope so, I think so!" was Mellen's frank answer; "for hereafter, my
sweet wife must be a guardian angel to the dear child, for she has been,
til