"And now our task is done," continued Alice, with cheerfulness. "The Lion is fed, and is roaring loudly in the Royal Academy: moreover, he has food enough for a lifetime. And as for you, your struggle with the hard cold world is ended, dear," and as she spoke she laid her hand on Doris’s thin arm. "Are you not glad?" she asked a little wistfully, for the sadness of her friend was a great trouble to her. "I try to be," answered Doris. "Try to be?" Alice raised her eyebrows. "Yes. I have to try, you know, for I don’t feel able to rejoice about anything in these days." The tears came to Doris’s eyes as she spoke, and her lips trembled. "Poor dear! That is because you are out of health----" "Sometimes I wish it was out of life," interrupted Doris wearily. For it was a dark hour with her, and, in her trouble in losing Bernard’s love and having promised to marry a man for whom she had no affection, she had for the time being lost her usual happy faith in the golden thread of her Heavenly Father’s love. "Oh, Doris!" Alice was shocked. Things were even worse than she had feared. "I cannot help it," returned Doris. "I am sad, and there is no denying it. Whichever way I look I see nothing but sadness--sadness in the past, in the present--and, God help me, in the future." Her tones were miserable. "In the future with Norman? Oh, Doris, you cannot _love_ him!" Alice’s tones were full of distress. "At least, I am not deceiving him. He knows what my feelings are." "Do you think he does--quite?" asked Alice, softly. "Yes, quite. And he is content: he says the love will come in time--that he will win it." "I don’t think he will," said Alice--they were talking in low tones which others could not hear, as they had the shelter to themselves--"love cannot be compelled. I don’t know much about it myself," she added candidly; "no man has ever wanted to marry me, and I have never cared for any one so much as I care for Norman, but I have read about love in books, and I know it cannot be forced. You do not love Norman." "Alice," protested Doris, "you ought not to say that!"