“There is just one thing more that I must call your attention to, which you seem to have forgotten entirely,” Queenie went on, pitilessly; “and that is, even if you are perfectly indifferent in the matter, you still should remember that in pursuing the course you persist in adopting, you are not only injuring your own prospects, but you are consigning to a life of misery and toil another, the man whom the elder Mr. Dinsmore intended should enjoy half of his great fortune. “Think long and seriously, Jess, ere you consign one whose only fault is loving you too well to a life of poverty and misery. It would be better far to give your life up to the noble purpose of making another happy, even though your heart is not in what you do. “In a fortnight he will come here to see you, and will ask for your final answer. I repeat, think long and earnestly ere you say him nay. He need never know what took place while you were at the farm those few weeks. In fact, I would counsel that you keep it carefully from his knowledge. Let that part of your book of life be a sealed chapter, which no human eyes may scan. Why tell him, and make him miserable, when silence is wisest and best, since it tends to his contentment and peace of mind for all time? “I leave you to think it over carefully, Jess. Surely you are too noble to consign the one who loves you so well to the bitterest of poverty. He does not know how to cope with it; he has always looked upon the Dinsmore fortune as his, some day; therefore he is not equipped to fight for his daily bread during the remainder of his life. If life and love are all over for you, consecrate your future to doing good deeds, and surely this is one.” So saying, she left the girl to her own pitiful reflections. Can it be wondered at, by dint of constantly holding this aspect of the case up before the girl’s troubled eyes, that slowly but surely she began to influence the girl, who was scarcely more than a child in her ideas, that it was her duty to sacrifice herself to save the man who was co-heir to Blackheath Hall from a life of poverty. It was with many bitter tears that at length Jess sobbed out that she would do exactly what Queenie advised. Life, hope and love were all over for her, it did not matter much what her future was. “Your lover of the old days will be here to-morrow,” announced Queenie, at length, “and shall I make his heart glad by telling him that you relent, and that matters will be between you as they were when you were down on the plantation in Louisiana; that you will meet him as your affianced husband?” Jess covered her face with her two little hands, which shook like aspen leaves, and nodded dumbly. She could not have said “yes” to have saved her life; she tried to utter the word, but it stuck in her throat and choked her. CHAPTER XLV. NAMING THE DAY.