It was Marion's preference to defer the wedding till such time as the house was considered fit for occupation. Such a pressure was, however, brought to bear on her, that she yielded to the wishes of her friend. He brought so many arguments to prove that the plan he now proposed was even better than the original one, that the few weeks before entering on the duties of housekeeping would give her just the leisure necessary for the formation of some of their new plans, etc., that, with a hearty laugh, she replied,— "I see that you intend to have your way, and as I believe that God intended the husband to be the head of the family, I suppose I may as well begin my obedience now. So on the week before Christmas the wedding shall be." I am very sure if my reader had not seen Mr. Angus since I first introduced him he would not recognize him now. Then he was bowed down with grief, not only for himself, but for one whom he had every reason to suppose was cherishing as toward her brother such anger in her heart as would cut her off from Divine forgiveness. He was, or felt himself to be, alone in the world. He had no right to form a tie which would make another the sharer of such a burden as his. To be sure, he had brooded over that one scene in his past life until he had become morbid, and perhaps had not relief come to him he might have become unfit to preach the gospel of glad tidings to his fellow-men. When he walked, his eyes were cast down to the ground, while sighs were much more frequent with him than smiles. Now how different. He walked erect, with elastic tread, his eyes met yours with a frank smile. One could scarcely be with him five minutes without being drawn to him by a certain magnetism. You felt that his heart was at rest, and more, you could not fail to be sure that he was grateful for God's goodness, that he was literally obeying the Divine injunction, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, I say, rejoice." Mr. and Mrs. Asbury cordially extended an invitation to the young couple to remain with them till spring. The gentleman even urged the necessity of having his niece close at hand until certain building plans, etc., were complete. But this needs explanation. It was not probable that such grateful friends as Mr. and Mrs. Lambert would allow so grand an occasion as Miss Howard's marriage to take place without some act expressive of their deep affection and respect. Now that Mr. Lambert had a wife and daughter with whom he could consult, he spent much time in the discussion of what would be the most acceptable wedding present. Once, hearing the word "jewelry" from his daughter, he shouted,— "Jewelry! Would she like diamonds? I'll buy up a case of them." "I said I was sure she would not care for jewelry." "What shall it be, then? Not that anything we can do will ever prove to her our sense of her goodness and faithfulness to us; but it must be something to show her that I value my family, owe to her my finding them."