f part of our life, of
yours and mine. Shall I ever forget how starkly you held it for the sake
of my honor, even against myself? Should I ever have known you without
it?" He put the ring into her hand, and, smiling with his old dare, held
it over the fountain. "Now, if you want to, drop it in." He released her
hand and turned to leave her to her will.

For a moment she stood with power in her hands and her eyes on his
averted head. Then with a little rush she crossed the space between
them. "Here, take it! You love it! I want you to keep it! but I can't
forget the dreadful things it has made people do. It makes me afraid."

In spite of his smiling he seemed to her very grave. "You dear, silly
child! The whole storm and trouble of life comes from things being in
the wrong place. This has been in the wrong place and made mischief."

"Like me," she murmured.

"Like you," he agreed. "Now we shall be as we should be. Give me your
hand."

He drew off all the rings with which she had once tried to dim the
sparkle of the sapphire, and, dropping them into his pocket like so
much dross, slipped on the Idol that covered her third finger in a
splendid bar from knuckle to joint. Holding her by just the tip of that
finger, leaning back a little, he looked into her eyes, and she, looking
back, knew that it wedded them once for all.

THE END

ADVERTISEMENTS

* * * * *

BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY

CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS

Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.

+THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. With illustrations by
Charles Livingston Bull.+

Appeals alike to the young and to the merely youthful-hearted. Close
observation. Graphic description. We get a sense of the great wild and
its denizens. Out of the common. Vigorous and full of character. The
book is one to be enjoyed; all the more because it smacks of the forest
instead of the museum. John Burroughs says: "The volume is in many ways
the most brilliant collection of Animal Stories that has appeared. It
reaches a high order of literary merit."

+THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Illustrated.+

This book strikes a new note in literature. It is a realistic romance of
the folk of the forest--a romance of the alliance of peace between a
pioneer's daughter in the depths of the ancient wood and the wild beasts
who felt her spell and became her friends. It is not fanciful, with
talking beasts;