To the cedar-room he went, unannounced. She raised her eyes, and a flush crimsoned her face, as she saw who it was. “Hermione,” he said, simply, “I have received your note, and I am here. One word from you restores me from death to life. I could wait no longer. I have come to you to ask my fate.” And then--he never knew how it happened--the next moment he had her clasped in his arms, and she was weeping on his shoulder. “I thought, I fancied, I must sacrifice my life to a phantom of grief,” he said; “but, Hermione, I have suffered enough. I have come to you for life, love, happiness, and, my darling, you must not send me from you.” “I will not,” she whispered. But he, in his impetuous hurry, did not hear her. “If you saw a man drowning and held the rope that was to save him, you could not cut it adrift?” “No, no!” she cried. “It is you, Hermione, who holds my life, my soul, my welfare, all in your own hands. Think what my love has cost me, and, darling, do not send me from you again.” The beautiful face she raised to his had a light in it never yet seen on land or sea, the light of love and heroism. “You shall never leave me, Ronald, through fault of mine. I love you dearly. I have never loved any one else. If you had never sought me again, I should, for your sake, have gone single to my grave. I tell you all this to comfort you, and because I know you to stand in sore need of comfort now.” She was almost alarmed at the ghastly pallor that overspread his face. “I cannot believe it,” he said. “Oh, Hermione, swear to me that you will be mine!” He never forgot the next moment--never, even when after years taught him how true was her vow. She laid her hand in his. “You ask me to love you, Ronald? You ask me to swear to be your wife. Listen, love, to my vow. I promise to love you, and you alone, while life shall last. I promise to live for your happiness and welfare; to spend my whole life in teaching you to forget your sorrow and learn true happiness at last. I swear to be true to you, to stand by your side in all trials, to shield you from all cares--ah, and if need should be, my husband and love, to lay down my life for yours!” She paused then, for the fervor of her own words had overpowered her. An hour was to come when those words would comfort them both, and they would know how deeply Lady Alden felt the solemnity of her vow. Their marriage was not long delayed. It seemed to Sir Ronald that the good angel of his life was coming home to him at last, for Lady Hermione was less woman than angel. She soothed him; her sweet, bright words drove away the darker moods that would at times overtake him in spite of the sunshine of her presence. It was as though new life had come to the grand old mansion, when Lady Alden’s bright, sweet face shone there.