"What!--what!--what!" he cried, jealously, "you wish to get rid of me like that." "No--to go with you--share your life and labours there--be happy with you!" "Mattie!--what does this mean?" He held her at arm's length, and looked into her tear-dimmed eyes; he read the truth at last there, and, though unable to account for it, he folded his stricken daughter to his heart, and even wept with her. A man who had known little of earth's romance, or of the tenderness of life, and yet who understood it, now it was face to face with him, and could appreciate the loneliness of her whose life had become linked with his own. "So," he said, at last, "you do not--you do not love Sidney well enough to become his wife?" "Yes, I do. I love him too well ever to make him unhappy by becoming so, and standing between him and one he loves so much better than me. Some day I will tell you the whole story--explain it more minutely--you will spare me now, and keep my secret ever?" "Ever," he responded. "He will never know how I have loved him, therefore his memory will not be embittered by thinking that I--I felt this separation very much. I shall give him up--that's all! I don't think that he will care for any explanation--and after that, I should very much like to go away with you to a new world." "Beginning life anew, and leaving all old troubles behind us--well, if it must end like this, so much the better, Mattie!" Mattie was silent for awhile, then said suddenly-- "You will go back now, and tell them that your daughter is anxious to go with you--to serve you there, and be your faithful servant in the good work lying before us both." "If it's certain that you----" "Father, there can be no alteration in _me_." Mr. Gray took up his hat again and prepared to depart. He would have liked to attempt consolation to his daughter, but he felt, probably for the first time, that his efforts would have resulted in no good--that she was already resigned, and that the utterance of trite aphorisms would only unnecessarily wound her. He departed, and Mattie, true to her old business habits, took once more her place in the shop. She was glad that there was no business doing that afternoon--that Peckham in the aggregate was undisturbed with thoughts of stationery. She could sit there and deliberate upon her plans for bringing Harriet and Sidney together--they must be happy at least, and she must not go away from England uncertain about their future. Two old sweethearts, whose liking for each other had only been temporarily disturbed--for whose happiness she had made many efforts, and did not flinch at this one. After all, she thought, their happiness would be hers--and she should go away content.