"The Paris made a quick trip--almost broke the record. She was not really due until to-morrow. I came immediately to Washington, hoping," reproachfully, "for a warmer welcome." Something in his voice and eyes went to her heart. She colored painfully, and stammered: "They will be here directly, and Ethel will be delighted to find you here." "But--you, Precious--what a cold welcome you have given me, not even a touch of your little hand." He saw her young bosom heave with secret emotion. The color came and went like the rosy dawn light on her cheek. "I--I--beg pardon. I did not think," she faltered, with what seemed to him frosty courtesy. He burst forth bitterly: "Perhaps my altered prospects have changed your esteem for me. Between the heir of an earldom and a poor man there is a vast difference. It can even alter friendship." Precious looked at him in surprise and indignation, and answered quickly: "Not friendship, only its imitation. Nothing can change true friendship, mamma says; but she has also told me that nothing is so rare in the world as imperishable friendship. But between true friends no change of fortune can make any difference." Her earnest blue eyes were raised to his with sudden frankness as she confessed: "I did not offer you my hand because--I was not sure you felt any friendship for me. You--you parted from me in anger." "I was mad with pain. Forgive me for my anger," he answered sadly, and added: "Permit me to refer to the past just once, and no more forever." She bowed with drooping lashes, and he continued in a voice that was freighted with deep emotion: "At that time, Precious, I was mad for your love, and friendship seemed so poor and tame beside it that I would have counted it as of little worth. But how times change!" He drew a long, quivering breath, and continued: "We have put the past behind us. You, they tell me, are to be another man's wife. I am to be your sister's husband. You will be my sister, and something within me yearns for your friendship. Next to love it is the sweetest, purest emotion of life. Like the edelweiss growing on the high, pure altitudes of the Alps, the rare white flower of friendship can only bloom in imperishable beauty in the congenial soil of a noble nature. Will you grant me this great boon, Precious--your life-long friendship?" The eager, dark-gray eyes looked at her pleadingly, but their light was almost holy as he prayed for this place in her heart and life, to be remembered as a faithful friend rather than a disappointed lover. "A place in thy memory, dearest, Is all that I claim; To pause and look back when thou hearest The sound of my name. Another may woo thee nearer, Another may win and wear; Although he may be the dearer, Let me be remembered there!