ur planet has
entered some portion of the ethereal space where the conditions are
sucking us dry of oxygen. As it recedes from the earth the water
disappears, and we shall be left to revolve like the moon, without air
and without liquid, and consequently without life."

He said this meditatively, less as if he were answering my question than
if he were formulating his own fears.

"Then," I remarked, "if this takes place gradually, the millions have
got to struggle and writhe and fight together in suffocation. We can at
least blow our brains out and cheat such a fate."

"I should hate," said the Judge, "to think that the man who was to marry
Kate had not the bravery to face his destiny."

That was all that was said. We came down, and some ripples of
intelligence reached us during the afternoon from one or two persons who
made their way into the house. We learned that in the frenzy of fear the
populace were committing the most extraordinary excesses. The shore line
of the Atlantic was crowded with people, many of whom plunged into the
ocean in the vain attempt to get away. The scenes in the city were too
revolting to narrate, for a large class of the community, released from
all restraint of moral and civil law, were bent on securing all the
lawless pleasures that force could command, during the few hours that
was left to them. And the line was steadily coming East. Chicago was cut
off at twelve o'clock. And at four intelligence had ceased coming from
Buffalo. At this time the sound of the winds was like the roar of the
sea. I had torn myself away from the window where I had been staring at
the now packed and struggling masses of people, and had locked myself in
the room with the dead body of Kate. There was a vial of opium on her
table that had been used for neuralgia; I swallowed it, and sat down by
the bedside. I know not how long I remained there. But a loud report, as
of a discharged cannon, roused me. I remember staggering and panting in
the dark, with a semi-consciousness that the end had come, and I now
know that report was occasioned by the bursting of the drums of my ears.

I remember nothing more. I have given you a plain statement of my
experiences in that crisis, and I dare say they are uneventful enough by
the side of the experiences of millions.

SHALL HE MARRY HER?

BY ANNA KATHERINE GREEN.

CHAPTER I.

When I met Taylor at the club the other night, he looked so cheerful I
scarcely