fortified herself to meet it, while Guy hung over her, never guessing of all that was passing in her mind, or how, when he was out of sight, the lips he had longed so much to kiss, but never had since that day in the graveyard, quivered with anguish as they asked for strength to do right; crying often, “Help me, Father, to do my duty, and give me, too, a greater inclination to do it than I now possess.” Maddy’s heart failed her sometimes, and she might have yielded to the temptation but for a letter from Lucy, full of eager anticipations of the time when she should see Guy, never to part again. “Sometimes,” she wrote, “there comes over me a dark foreboding of evil—a fear that I shall miss the cup now just within my reach; but I pray the bad feelings away. I am sure there is no living being who will come between us to break my heart, and as I know God doeth all things well, I trust him wholly and cease to doubt.” It was well the letter came when it did, as it helped Maddy to meet the hour she so much dreaded, and which came at last on an afternoon when Mrs. Noah had gone to Aikenside, and Flora had gone on an errand to a neighbor’s two miles away, thus leaving Guy free to tell the story, so old, yet always new to him who tells it and to her who listens, the story which, as Guy told it, sitting by Maddy’s side, with her hands in his, thrilled her through and through, making the sweat-drops start out around her lips and underneath her hair; the story which made Guy himself pant nervously and tremble like a leaf, so earnestly he told her how long he had loved her, of the picture withheld, the jealousy he felt each time the doctor named her, the selfish joy he experienced when he heard the doctor was refused; of his growing dissatisfaction with his engagement, his frequent resolves to break it, his final decision, which that scene in the graveyard had reversed, and then asked if she would not be his—not doubtfully, but confidently, eagerly as if sure of her answer. Alas for Guy! he could not believe he heard aright when, turning her head away for a moment while she prayed for strength, Maddy’s answer came, “I cannot, Guy, I cannot. I acknowledge the love which has stolen upon me, I know not how, but I cannot do this wrong to Lucy. Away from me you will love her again. You must. Read this, Guy, then say if you can desert her.”