e with just a friendly word of
good night, and the others had at last left the judge and me alone--also
in the moonlight, which I wished in my heart somebody would put out.

They say among the lawyers that it is a good thing that Benton Wade is
on the bench, for it is no use to try a case against him when he has the
handling of a jury. He just looks them in the face and tells them how to
vote. To-night he looked me in the face and told me how to marry, and
I'm not sure yet that I won't do as he says. Of course I'm in love with
Alfred, but if he wants me he had better get me away quick before the
judge makes all his arrangements. A woman loves to be courted with poems
and flowers and deference, but she's mighty apt to marry the man who
says, "Don't argue, but put on your bonnet and come with me." The fact
that it was too late to get into the clerk's office saved me to-night,
but in two days--

Oh, I'm crying, crying in my heart, which is worse than in my eyes, as I
sit and look across my garden, where the cold moon is hanging low over
the tall trees behind the doctor's house and his light in his room is
burning warm and bright. They are right; _he_ doesn't care if I am
going away for ever with Alfred. His quick toast to him and the lovely
warm look he poured over poor frightened me at his side, as he drank his
champagne, told me that once and for all. Still we have been so close
together over his baby and I have grown so dependent on him for so many
things that it cuts into me like a hot knife that he shouldn't care if
he lost me--even for a neighbor. I shouldn't mind not having _any_
husband if I could always live close by him and Billy like this, and if
I married Judge Wade I could at least have him for a family physician.
_No--I don't like that_! Of course I'm going with Alfred now that
an accident has made me announce the fact to the whole town before he
even knows it himself, but wherever I go that light in the room with
that lonely man is going to burn in my heart. Hope it will throw a glow
over Alfred!

LEAF SEVENTH

DASHED!

I do believe God gave that wise angel charge concerning me lest I get
dashed, but I just got dashed anyway, and its my own fault, not the
angel's. I have suffered this day until I want to lay my face down
against the hem of His garment and wait in the dust for Him to pick me
up. I shall never be able to do it myself, and how He's going to do it
I can't see, but He will.

That