He bent to kiss her, but with one shaking hand she softly turned his face aside. "Not yet, please--while I am Eglah Kent." Her arms stole up around his neck and her strained voice broke. "I am so unhappy; I seem to be in a horrible, strangling dream. Be patient with me. You are the only one in all the world who can comfort me, and I am looking to you now as--I once looked to God." Holding her in a close clasp, he felt her quivering from head to foot. "Sweetheart, don't tremble so. Trust me, darling, and love me, and no home in the wide universe will be so happy and blessed as ours. Ours! The word holds heaven. Are you cold, that you shiver so constantly? Come into the sunshine." Pacing up and down the colonnade, Judge Kent watched them approaching. He looked worn, hunted, and a sickly pallor marked his usually florid face. Before Mr. Herriott could speak, he was startled by a strange hysterical sound from Eglah; not a cry, not a sob. As she looked at her father, her face lighted with a marvellous, yearning tenderness, and she sprang into his extended arms. "Father, you will love me now! Kiss me, kiss me. Hold me tight--take me back to my place in your heart." Only he could hear the low ripple of broken words, and his tears dripped on her face as he pressed his lips to hers. "Herriott, what does it all mean?" "That I am the happiest, proudest man on earth. Coming here to say good-bye to my sweetheart, I shall carry my wife away with me." "But she cannot go to the North Pole, and--you may not survive the dangers." "When I know she is waiting at home for me, do you suppose all the ice in Greenland could shut me away from her?" "God bless my daughter! How shall I live without her?" "We are never to be separated. Mr. Herriott could not wish anything so cruel." She rose on tiptoe, put a hand on each wet cheek, and kissed her father twice. Mr. Herriott looked at his watch. "Eglah has consented to be married to-night, and my train leaves at eleven. There are several important matters to be arranged, and I should be glad to know her wishes." She rang the bell, then stepped to his side and slipped her hand in his. "Father's rector is absent, and I wish Bishop Vivian to perform the ceremony; he loved my grandmother, and she loved him." Aaron appeared at the door. "Tell Oliver to bring the trap around as soon as he can. Father, you must go in with Mr. Herriott. Mrs. Whitfield is sick, but I want Mr. Whitfield and Lucy and Dr. Eggleston and his wife to be here. If you wish any others, invite them. Mr. Noel, what hour?" "I suggest not later than nine." "My dear Ma-Lila will never forgive me. She is away." "Where? Could not a telegram reach her?" "No, she is in the country, two miles from a station. She left me only this morning, and will be so grieved." "How far away?"