“How soon would you like it?” “The sooner the better.” “Then I fix to-day,” she said impulsively. “What, here, in this jail?” “Yes, where you are is heaven to me. I haven’t noticed the jail,” she said soberly. He looked at her a moment, strained her to his heart and brushed the tears of joy from his eyes. “My beautiful queen! This hour is worth every pain and every throb of anguish I have suffered. Its memory will encompass life with a great light.” “I ’ll go with Stella, see Dr. Durham who is here looking after your case, have him get the license, and we will be back in half an hour!” The Preacher greeted her with delight. “Ah! Miss Sallie, if I had known a little thing like this would have brought you back, I would have hired a jail for him long ago, and put him in it.” “Doctor, I want you to get the license and marry us now, will you do it?” “Will I? Just watch me. I ’ll have the documents and be ready for the ceremony in fifteen minutes!” cried the preacher as he hurried to the office of the Register of Deeds. Sallie ran up to Mrs. Durham’s room, told her, and asked her to be one of the witnesses. “Of course, I will, Sallie. You are the one girl in the world I have always wanted Charlie to marry.” Sallie slipped her arm around Mrs. Durham. “You don’t think I am doing wrong to disobey my parents thus, do you?” she faltered. “I feel just for a moment, now that I have decided, bruised and homesick,--I want my mother. Let me feel your arms about my neck just once. You are a woman. You love me as well as Charlie, tell me, am I doing wrong?” Mrs. Durham kissed her. “I do love you child. It is a solemn hour for your soul. You alone can decide such a question. Any intrusion of advice in such a trial would be a sacrilege. Under ordinary conditions it would be a dangerous thing for a girl thus to leave her father’s roof and take this step that will decide forever her destiny. Marriage is something that swallows up life, the past, the present, the future. We seem to have never known anything else. I can only say, if I were in your place, knowing all I would do as you are doing.” Sallie impulsively kissed her, bit her lips to keep back a tear, and held her hand. “I know your father well,” she continued. “He is a man I greatly admire. But he is unreasonable with any one who dares to cross his will. You could never get his consent now that his pride is aroused except by forcing it. When it is over, he will forgive you, and when he knows your lover as I know him, he will be as proud of his son-in-law as a peacock of his plumage.” “Oh, it is so sweet to hear just the advice one wishes in such an hour,” cried Sallie. “I shall always love you for these words.” “Yes, I congratulate you on the end of your long hesitation. I know you will be happy. Any woman would be happy with the love of such a man, and he was made for you.”