ht, vain women love: to make slaves of men,
and bring them back and back to be hurt. It is not to be so with me.
No, indeed! Farewell, Nanna."

His voice failed him. He turned toward the door, and for a moment
Nanna could not realize that he was actually bidding her a final
farewell. When she did she flew to his side, and arrested his hand
as he was opening the door.

"Come back! Come back, David!" she entreated. "You are all wrong;
you are very cruel to me. If you leave me it will break my heart!
It will be the last blow, David. It is the very truth."

He hesitated enough to make Nanna weep with passionate distress,
and this emotion he was not able to bear. He took her within his
arm again, led her to a chair, and sat down at her side, and as he
kissed the tears from her face said:

"If indeed you do love me, Nanna--"

"_If_ I do love you!" she interrupted. "I love none but you. You are
heart of my heart and soul of my soul. I hear you coming when you
are half a mile away. I have no joy but when you are beside me. I
shall die of grief if you leave me in anger. I would count it heaven
and earth to be your wife, but I dare not! I dare not!"

She was sobbing piteously when she ended this protestation, and
David comforted her with caresses and tender words. "What fears
you, Nanna?" he asked. "Oh, my dear, what fears you?"

"This is what I fear," she answered, freeing herself from his
embrace, and looking steadily at him. "This is what I fear, David.
If we were married I might have another child--I might have many
children."

Then he clasped her hand tightly, for he began to see where Nanna was
leading him, as she continued with slow solemnity:

"Can you, can the minister, can any human being, give me assurance
they will be elect children? If you can, I will be your wife
to-morrow. If you cannot, as the God of my father lives, I will not
bring sons and daughters into life for sin and sorrow here, and for
perdition hereafter. The devil shall not so use my body! To people
hell? No; I will not--not even for your love, David!"

Her words, so passionate and positive, moved him deeply. He was
the old David again--the light, the gladness, all but the tender,
mournful love of the past, gone from his face. He held both her
hands, and he looked down at them lying in his own as he answered:

"Both of us are His children, Nanna. We are His by generations and
by covenant. He has promised mercy to such. Well, then, we may h