"Of course, my dear children," he began, impressively, "if it is your earnest desire, I will perform the marriage ceremony for you here in this room at noon to-morrow. But I trust you have both given the matter careful thought--not, of course, as to the suitability of your union, but the--I may say, the manner of it! A ceremony without a social function, without the customary observances which, although worldly and filled with pomp and vanity, nevertheless are befitted by usage, in these mundane days, to those of your station in life, seems slightly unconventional, almost--er--unseemly." "But we don't care for the pomp and vanity, and the social observances, and all the rest of it, do we, Ramon?" the girl asked. Ramon Hamilton smiled, and his eyes met and held hers. "We only want each other," he said quietly. "But it seems so very precipitate!" the clergyman urged, turning as if for moral support to the impassive figure of Henry Blaine. "So soon after the shadow of tragedy has crossed this threshold! What will people say?" A little vagrant breeze, like a lost, unseasonable butterfly, came in at the open window and stirred the filmy curtain, bearing on its soft breath the odor of narcissus from the bloom-laden window-box. "Oh, Doctor Franklin!" cried the girl, impulsively. "Don't talk of tragedy just now! Spring is so near, and we love each other so! If he--my dear, dead father--can hear, he will understand, and wish it to be so!" "As you will." The minister rose. "I gave you your name, Anita. I consecrated your father's soul to Heaven, and his body to the dust, and I will give his daughter in marriage to the man he chose for her protector, whenever it is your will. But, Mr. Blaine, what do you say? You seem to have more influence over Miss Lawton than I, although I can scarcely understand it. Don't you agree with me that the world will talk?" "I do!" responded Henry Blaine fervently. "And I say--let it! It can say of these two children only what I do--bless you, both! Sorrow and suffering and tragedy have taken their quota of these young lives--now let a little happiness and joy and sunshine and love in upon the circumspect gloom you would still cast about them! You ministers are steeped in the spiritual misery of the world, the doctors in the physical; but we crime-specialists are forced to drink of it to its dregs, physical, mental, moral, spiritual! And there is so much in this tainted, sin-ridden world of ours that is beautiful and pure and happy and holy, if we will but give it a chance!" Doctor Franklin coughed, in a severely condemnatory fashion. "Now that I have learned your opinion, in a broad, general way, Mr. Blaine, I can understand your point of view in regard to that young criminal, Charles Pennold, when at the time of the trial you used your influence to have him paroled in your custody, instead of being sent to prison, where he belonged."