"I cannot--I will not--promise," she said firmly. "If I marry it must be some one who has distinguished himself, who has made himself a name among the great people of the world. I hate this humdrum life, and this dull existence in the country. The man I loved should be one of whom his fellow-men talked because he had become great and done something of which I could be proud. No, no, Dr North; you must not ask me to promise this." He sat gazing into her eyes, for her words had struck a chord in his breast. They seemed to rouse up in him the thoughts and theories which had been set aside during the months of her illness while she had been his only care; and with an eager burst of fervid passion in his tones, he exclaimed: "If I distinguished myself in some way--if I set men talking about my discoveries, and made my name famous, would you listen to me then?" The same mocking light was in her eye, the same half-contemptuous smile played for a moment about the corners of her lips, as she said, in a low voice: "Wait and see." "Wait? I will wait," he cried eagerly; "and you shall share my triumph. Leo, you do not know, you cannot tell, what thoughts I have--what investigations I am making into a science which is full of wonders waiting to be discovered. You have roused once more in me the great desire to win fame: to make researches that shall benefit humanity for all time to come. I can, I will, win these secrets from Nature, and we will together go hand-in-hand, learning more and more. I shall succeed!" he cried excitedly. "Ah! you smile. You do give me hope." She did not speak, but veiled her eyes, to hide the mocking light within them. "My darling--my love!" he exclaimed. She drew back from his embrace. "No, no," she said. "We are only friends." "Yes, friends," he cried--"friends now." "Say no more," she continued. "I am still weak, and this troubles me. Pray go now." "Yes, I am going," he said eagerly, "to fight a hard fight. I used to think of it as for fame alone. Now it is for love--your love--the love of the woman who first taught me that I had a heart." Raising the hand she surrendered, he kissed it tenderly, and was about to speak again, but he could not trust himself; and giving her a look full of love, trust, and devotion, he hurried back to the study, where Salis sat with Mary, waiting his return. "Well?" said Salis, as Mary sat with pinched lips, and eyes wild with emotion. "Congratulate me, my dear boy!" cried North excitedly. "She has promised to be your wife?" "No, no; I am to wait and work. She is quite right. It was assumption on my part." "Then she has refused you?" "Oh, no! She is quite right. She bids me do something to make me worthy of her love, and--ah! Hartley, old fellow, I did not know what life was before. There! I am the happiest fool on earth."