When they had entered the room, the invalid father rose, pale and trembling, and, in accordance with Kate's wishes, declared: "My friends, I announce to you that I have given my daughter to be married unto this man." Gordon took her hot hand in his massive grasp and said: "We believe, friends, in fellowship. We have asked you to-night to share with us the sacrament of the unity of our lives which we thus announce. For years this unity has made us one. We thus make it manifest unto the world. In the woman I have chosen as my comrade, behold the living soul of serene-browed Grecian goddess and German seeress of old, whose untamed eyes of primeval womanhood, the equal and the mate of man, proclaim the end of slave-marriage and the dawn of perfect love." He placed the ring on her hand, and Kate responded: "This is the day and the hour that we have chosen to announce to you our union." The Socialist preacher said: "We are here to-day, called by a sacrament, not in the conventional sense, but in the elemental meaning of the word which reflects the mind and the being of the Eternal. Human life incarnates God. We are not met here to inaugurate a marriage. Words can add nothing to the sublime fact of the union of two souls. This is the supreme sacrament of human experience. It proclaims its inherent divinity. This oneness no more begins to-day than God does. Time loses its meaning, but there is no yesterday or to-morrow in the harmony and rhythm of two such souls. Love holds all the years that have been and are to be. "This is a day of joy--overflowing, unsullied, serene, a day of hope, a day of faith. It is a day of courage and of cheer, and to the world it speaks a gospel of freedom and fellowship. It proclaims the dawn of a higher life for all, the sanctity and omnipotence of love. It asserts the elemental rights of man. These friends of ours announce to-day their marriage. "Inasmuch as Frank Gordon and Kate Ransom are thus united in love, I announce that they are husband and wife by every law of right and truth, and pray for them the abiding gladness that dwells in the heart of God forever." Kate's mother kissed her and cried in the old-fashioned way, and they sailed next day for a bridal tour abroad. CHAPTER XX AN OLD SWEETHEART Ruth had fulfilled Gordon's prediction. She had lifted up her head and serenely entered her new and trying life.