"I was fully prepared for something like that, Jessie—if I may call you that?" said Fellows. "Well then, don’t you think it would be better for me to defer any answer at present?" she naïvely asked. "I don’t think so, my dear—and yet——" After some hesitation he added, "How can I venture to tell you all that is on my mind? and yet I feel it would not be fair on my part to win, perhaps, your consent to my suit, without first placing you in full possession of the facts in my past life, which may seriously affect your decision." "But if the opinion I have been led to form of you be a correct one, it cannot be anything of which you need be ashamed or afraid to tell me." "Ah, Jessie!" he exclaimed in mournful tones, "I am afraid you have estimated me too highly." "Tell me, then," she added somewhat eagerly, her moistening eyes betraying only too plainly the anxiety she felt, yet was loath to reveal. Thus encouraged, Fellows at once confided to her the story of his past life, which was much to the same effect as had been narrated to Ranger, and overheard by Barton, from the place where he lay concealed. In addition to what he had revealed to Ranger, he was now able to add, that, acting upon the advice then given, he had since written home to inform his mother that he was still alive, and how he had instructed her to act. It would be difficult to describe the feeling paramount in Jessie’s breast, on hearing the singular and startling confession which Fellows had made. She felt quite unequal to the task of analysing the causes which gave rise to the emotions agitating her. They were of too conflicting a character to warrant a prompt decision on the important question which had been urged upon her. Like the true woman that she was, there was a thrill of ecstatic pleasure running through every nerve when she fully realised that she was the possessor of a man’s true love, and that man one upon whom she had been only too disposed to allow her affections to gather strength and to centre. Her first impulse inclined her to utter a responsive "Yes" to the impassioned appeal which was addressed to her. The revulsion, however, which followed the second revelation, was one more of sorrow and regret, which left her in a state of mind she was not able to explain to her own satisfaction, nor one which qualified her to give an answer to Fellows. "Well, Jessie," said Fellows, after waiting some time, "what interpretation am I to put upon your silence?" "Oh, Mr. Fellows, I wish you would not press me now for a reply!" "If that is your wish, it shall be my law, and I will wait," he replied.