"Mamma, I love you first and best," he said. "But I love papa and grandmamma, too. If he has been naughty, let us forgive him and stay with him." "Stay with me, Laurel," echoed St. Leon. She felt the warm, persuasive clasp of his fingers on hers. All the ice about her heart melted beneath that touch. She could not hold out against him. She knew that she must yield if she did not fly from his presence. "Oh, let me go!" she cried. "It is not best that I should come back to you. It is the child you want. There is so much in the past that would haunt us! There is so much to rouse reproach and regret. We are best apart. Oh, let me go!" But somehow he had drawn her down to the clasp of his arms now. His warm lips were pressed against her cheek. "Only one word, dear," he whispered. "Do you love me still, my Laurel?" "I have loved you always," she murmured, and she knew that with this confession love had conquered pride. "Then let us forget all else but our love," he pleaded. "You will stay with me, Laurel?" "I will stay," she answered. "And never yet since first in Paradise, O'er the four rivers the first roses blew, Came purer pleasure unto mortal kind, Than lived through her who, in that happy hour, Put hand to hand beneath her husband's heart, And felt him hers again." THE END. THE SWEETHEART SERIES. PRICE 15 CENTS PER COPY. TWO COPIES FOR 25 CENTS. These books are printed on good paper, in large type, and are bound in handsome photogravure covers of different designs. A complete list of CHARLOTTE M. BRAEME'S works is published in this series. Charlotte M. Braeme.