ir thoughts and happier-hearted; and oh, my
master, 'tis sweet to live with one you love; be unto him a new life
daily, and see him grow in your growth, matching it, and so go on in
that perfect companionship that the future may give to us as the highest
fortune, and, having given, has given its best and all."

"You shall live," answered the man, "you shall live and have as you
deserve, dear girl; and if I have taught you aught which, being known,
has made or shall make your life on earth sweeter, take it as my legacy
to you. I had thought to leave you something more, perhaps something
better, but that is past."

"I will not take your legacy and stay," answered the girl, "I will
rather take it and go with you, that where you are I may be with you.
You have promised nothing and I want no promise. I have only asked one
thing and only one thing now do I ask, and that you will not hold from
me, for I have earned it, earned it by patient serving and by growth
that you know came from you."

"What is it that you ask? Tell me," replied the man, "for you shall have
it if it be in the power of my giving."

"Companionship," answered the girl,--"the companionship of service. My
mind must serve your mind; for only so may it find its growth for which
it longs. You have led me from darkness to light; and into what future
light you advance I must enter too. I love you as women love men; but I
love you more than that. I love you for what you are separate from what
you can ever be to me. I love you as a mind; I love you as a soul; I
love you as a spirit; I love you with a purity, with an ambition, with a
longing that men cannot interpret and earthly relations cannot express;
but which God understands and which in his Heaven I know there must be a
name for, and a connection that is known through all the social life of
Heaven."

"It must not be," answered the man. "I admit your claim; but it must not
be."

"Why must it not be?" asked the girl.

The man hesitated a moment, and then he said:

"Because my future is uncertain; I dare not say what it will be."

"I care not what it is," answered the girl. "Whatever it is, that I
share, share because I cannot help it. It is not a question of
condition, but of presence. With you I could bear all misery; yea, in
the misery find happiness. Without you my heart could feel no joy
throughout eternity. Master, my master, I love you so!" And as she
looked into the face of the man there came to