"We will spend the intervening time--which will be our honey-moon--either in Florida or abroad, as best pleases you. Your will shall be my law. I will make you so happy, Jessie, that you will never regret the hour in which you gave your heart to me. "It will take but a day for this letter to reach you, and another must elapse ere I can hear from you. They will be two days hard for me to endure, Jessie. When a man is in love--deeply, desperately in love--it is madness for him to attempt to do any kind of business, as his mind is not on it, he can think of but one object--the girl whom he idolizes. His one hope is to be near her, his one prayer is that her love is his, in return for the mighty affection that sways his whole being, and leads him into the ideal--the soul-world, which throws the halo of memory and anticipation around the image of her whom he loves. "Yours lovingly, "Hubert Varrick." Jessie Bain read the letter through, the color coming and going on her face, her heart aglow. Once, twice, thrice she read it through, then, with a little sob, she pressed it closely to her breast. "Hubert Varrick loves me!" Jessie whispered the words over and over again to herself, wondering if she should not awake presently and find it only an empty dream. He was waiting for her answer. She smiled at the thought. "My darling Hubert, my love, my king, as though it could be anything else but yes--yes, a thousand times yes!" she murmured. But even in this moment of ecstatic joy, the sword of destiny fell swiftly and unerringly upon her hapless golden head. God pity and help her in her mortal anguish, for in this moment she remembered that she had given Hubert's mother her sacred promise, nay, her _vow_, that she would never cross her son's path again. When the nurse returned, after the lapse of perhaps a quarter of an hour, to Jessie's bedside, she found the girl sobbing as though her heart would break, and the letter torn into a thousand pieces, which were fluttering over the counterpane. "I hope you have not heard any bad news, Miss Bain," she said, earnestly. Jessie raised her tear-stained face from her hands, and smiled up into her face, the most pitiful smile that ever was seen. "I have heard music so sweet that it might have opened up heaven to me, if fate had not been against me," she murmured, with quivering lips, the tears starting afresh to her blue eyes. These words completely puzzled the old nurse. But ere she could utter the words on her lips, Jessie continued: "I wish I could have some writing materials; I should like to answer this letter which I have received." "Do you think you feel strong enough to attempt to write it now?" she asked dubiously. "Yes," said Jessie; adding under her breath: "I must write it quickly, while I have the courage to do it."