A great hope, for a moment, came into her pale, anxious face; then she said, quietly: "We will pray over it, Ray, and if it truly seems to be God's will, I shall be only too happy to grant your request." And she hid her blushing face on his shoulder. "We will pray over it, Ray." Those words came with a condemning force to his ears. In all his weighing of the question, he had not prayed over it. He had not even thought of it; and now, as he realized this, and that he had not followed his usual custom of taking all of his plans to God for his direction, he was startled. Was he really setting up his own will, and trying to make God's will conform to it, instead of asking what was God's will, and then yielding his own will to that? "You are right, my Daisy," he said, raising her blushing face up to his for a kiss. "I am afraid I have not tried to settle this question as I should have done; we will indeed pray over it. Meantime, I can see no harm in going up to Easton and preaching for that church on Sunday. In that way God may give us light on this important question." But when he got to Easton and found how anxious the Grand Avenue Church people were to have him for their pastor, and how sure they were it would not be right for him to sail to his mission field without a wife, he yielded; and before he returned to Afton he had written the mission board that he would postpone his going out for a year, and had closed an engagement with the church as its pastor for the same length of time. When he told Daisy, she gravely shook her head. "I'm afraid, Ray, you have made a mistake," she said; "but, of course, in such a question as this, the final decision must always rest with you. It will take me some time to get ready for our marriage, with my other duties; then, too, we must see if mother can safely be moved as far as Easton. There is another thing we should think of also. If we are married, and then I could not go out with you in a year, what will you do? It will be infinitely harder for us to separate then: perhaps you would have to give up your plan altogether. Would it not be better to wait, and leave yourself at liberty to go alone another year, if my duty keeps me here? Don't think I am hesitating on my own account, Ray, about being your wife," she added, noticing his annoyed look. "It is because I love you so that I want in no way to embarrass you in your chosen work. Look well at every side of this question, and if you still feel it is the wisest course to take, I shall not delay our marriage a moment." Throwing his arm around her, Ray drew her down beside him on the nearest sofa. "Go on, as your other duties may permit, my darling, in your preparations for our marriage," he gravely said; "and the first moment it seems wisest to have the ceremony performed, we will have it done. It may come soon, and at brief notice; it may be long in the coming: but we will be ready for it at any hour.