is set over the
entrance."

"I will wait here," said Mr. Dunbar, relinquishing with a tight
pressure, his wife's cold hand.

"No, come. Are we not one?"

She hurried along the terrace, and reached the low open doorway
fronting the South, where the sunshine streamed in like God's smile of
forgiveness.

On the stone floor was a straw pallet covered with coarse brown
blankets, whereon, half propped by one elbow, with head against the
gray rocky wall, lay the emaciated wreck of a man, whose pallid face
might have been mistaken for that of a corpse, but for the superhuman
splendor of the wide, deep brown eyes.

Beryl sprang into the cave-like recess, and fell on her knees. She
snatched him to her heart, laid his head on her shoulder.

"Bertie! My darling! my darling!--"

He tried to raise one arm to her neck, but it fell back. She lifted it,
held it close, and face to face with her lips on his, she broke into
passionate sobbing, rocking herself to and fro, in the tempest of grief.

"Give me, give--me--air--" He struggled for breath, which her tight
clasp denied him; and for some minutes he panted, while Mr. Dunbar
fanned him with his hat. Then the heaving chest grew more quiet, and
after a moment, his eyes lighted with a happy smile as they fastened on
Beryl's face, bent over him.

"Gigina, sweet, faithful sister, it is almost heaven to see you once
more. God is good, even to me."

"If I could have found you sooner! All these dreadful years I have
lived at God's feet--with one prayer: let me help my Bertie, let me see
my brother's face," moaned Beryl, pressing her lips to the clammy,
fleshless hand she held against her throat.

"I was too unworthy. I dreaded your pure eyes, and mother's, as I would
an accusing angel's. I did not know, then, that mother was already one
of the Beatified. I know now, that neither life nor death, nor sin nor
shame, nor the brand of disgrace can change mother's love; for I see
her to-day, smiling at the door, beckoning me to follow where the sun
shines forever. My sainted mother."

"Her last breath was a blessing for you. See, Bertie! this was her
wedding ring. Her final message was, 'Give this to my darling!' Be
comforted, dear Bertie, she loved you even to the end--supremely. You
were her idol in death as in life. Our father's ring was the most
sacred relic she owned, and she left it to you."

She attempted to place the gold band on one of his fingers, but he
closed that hand