"Yes," he replied, "most certainly; but not in this fascination lasting. True love can only be tested by those who have learned the lesson of self-renunciation. If you wish to know whether you love or not, face these questions--Is it for myself this possession is desired, or am I striving only for the happiness of the one beloved? Should she change, and the beauty, if there is beauty, turn to the most repulsive ugliness; her apparent saintliness to sin; her affection to hatred, or her sanity to madness, should I still love her? If you can truly say this, and have sufficient imagination to realize fully the meaning of the change, yours is love; and if in after times, when trial comes, your self-confidence leaves you, such love may even then rest assured it is eternal, because it is of God. But we see this devotion more often exhibited in the passion of parent for child than in love between man and wife. The reason of this being that the latter relationship begins with the expectation of a love to be returned, and the former with a ministry of tenderness which can at the time receive no active response. It is ever owing to seemingly adverse circumstances that the finer qualities of man’s nature are drawn forth, and I have more reason to be thankful for the misery and perplexity which my love for Vera brought into my life than for all the hours of happiness which I have known. Much, however, as we may appreciate these disguised blessings in retrospect, it does not make them more agreeable to pass through; and this time which I spent at Heather Lodge was perhaps, with one exception, the most miserable period of my life. "I felt that it was absolutely necessary to take the first opportunity of letting Mr. Soudin know the truth. As soon as he returned, and I had a chance of speaking to him alone, I started on the unpleasant task. He listened patiently to the outline of the story till I came to the marriage-licence, then turning livid with anger he lost all self-control. "’I don’t believe it!’ he said. ’It is outrageous--monstrous! Why, the girl’s not of age. He would have been bound to get my consent. You must know that the thing’s out of the question!’ "When I explained that the age had been altered, he grew still more furious. "’I’ll have him up for perjury!’ he cried. ’Get the marriage annulled, for after all it was never consummated; the thing’s preposterous. He drugs the girl, gets her into his power, commits perjury, and hopes thereby to live on me for the rest of his life; but he is mistaken; the thing shall be put right at once!’ "As soon as he was a little calmer I tried to reason with him, and show that it would be no easy matter to prove that Vera was not a consenting party. "’Had you not better,’ I asked, ’go to Liverpool, and see the registrar before whom the marriage took place, and also examine the signatures? A prosecution for perjury might possibly fall upon your daughter if you are not careful how you act.’