th a gleeful laugh.

"--if I'm no worse--if I'm a little better----This is great medicine,
Nan. I feel like a new man now. If then----"

"I shall not go at all unless--unless----"

"Yes----"

"--unless I am bound tight--tight--to you. I--I shouldn't feel sure of
you!"

"Oh, there's no use resisting you," he said, half under his breath.
"It's the sorriest bargain a woman ever made, but----"

"If she will make it----"

"Look at me, Nan."

"I can't--long," she complained. "Somehow you--you--blind me."

He laughed softly. "I realize that--you are blind--blind. But I can't
open your eyes. Somehow I'm losing the strength to try."

"I must go now," she said gently, trying to release herself. "Really I
must! Yes, I must! Please, Jerry--let me go, dear----Yes, yes--you
must!" It took time, however, and was accomplished with extreme
difficulty. "But I _can_ go now. I couldn't when I said good-night
before----Oh! it's striking twelve! Good-night, Jerry----Merry
Christmas, Jerry!"

Before she quite went, however, she came back once more to lean over the
back of his chair and whisper in his ear:

"Jerry----"

"Yes?"

"Am I really--engaged--to you?"

"Darling--bless you--I'm afraid you are."

"Afraid?"

"Nan--I'm the happiest cripple on earth."

So she went softly out and closed the door. But it was not to sleep. As
for the man she left behind, his eyes looked into the smouldering fire
till well toward morning. It was not the doctor's prescription, but it
was the beginning of his cure.

III

THEIR WORD OF HONOUR

The president of the Great B---- railway system laid down the letter he
had just re-read three times, and turned about in his chair with an
expression of annoyance.

"I wish it were possible," he said slowly, "to find one boy or man in a
thousand who would receive instructions and carry them out to the letter
without a single variation from the course laid down. Cornelius"--he
looked up sharply at his son, who sat at a desk close by--"I hope you
are carrying out my ideas with regard to your sons. I've not seen much
of them lately. The lad Cyrus seems to me a promising fellow, but I'm
not so sure of Cornelius. He appears to be acquiring a sense of his own
importance as Cornelius Woodbridge, 3d, which is not desirable, sir--not
desirable. By the way, Cornelius, have you yet applied the Hezekiah
Woodbridge test to your boys?"

Cornelius Woodbridge, Junior, looked up from his work with a