"You have the best of me there," he said. "Yes, not a doubt of that, it does. And it is the very place that the white wings love to brighten if they can. But Mr. Kindred, if your particular angel is to live at San Carlos--or anywhere--and not break her heart; spread her white wings and fly away from earth and you together; you have got to fight the devil yourself; hand to hand, and wherever you find him. These earthly angels are not quite so robust as the old painters make out the heavenly to be." "She is the very centre of my life!" cried Magnus. But Mr. Wayne sighed. "It happened once," he said, "that a young graduate of West Point brought his three-months' bride not to San Carlos, but to Fortress Monroe. Of course, the 'pleasant fellows' of the garrison went to work to entertain him, and one of them told me this story: "'We had a little supper party,' he said. 'Not very large, but correct and choice; and we kept it up pretty late; and X. Y. got more than he could manage gracefully. So some of the stronger heads among us set out to get him home. Late, as I said; servants asleep, lights out, and I guess we knocked and rang more than once. Then X. Y.'s young wife came down, candle in hand, to let him in. Poor girl--I did feel sorry for her when I saw her white face, as the candle flared out upon him.'" There came up before Charlemagne Kindred, as his friend spoke, the vision of another face; so blanched, so stricken in its grief, and all for him. He bowed his head upon his hands. Mr. Wayne asked never a word. He looked at the fine young man beside him, not knowing just what he might have touched, and then away over the fair hills and the soft flowing river. What a world! Peace written everywhere on the exquisite setting; and everywhere in the picture the sharp life and death conflict. Then the glad words in the Revelation made answer: "And I saw, and, behold, a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow: and he went forth, conquering and to conquer." "Amen!" Mr. Wayne said aloud: adding half under his breath: "'Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence!'" Magnus looked up in surprise. "Only an old habit of mine," Mr. Wayne said, smiling at him. "I live so much alone, that I very often talk to myself for lack of a listener." "Do you want to see these mountains flow down?" Magnus asked, gazing in his turn at the fair hills. "Not these in themselves; only I long for all which the prophet's words imply. To see the crooked made straight, and the rough places plain; to hear the royal proclamation of the Prince of Peace sound out across this burdened earth; one could be willing to have 'every mountain and island' moved out of their places. To have that trumpet blast fill all the air: "'The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.'"