uis Hildreth closed his thin fingers over Evadne's
ring with a long drawn sigh. He was beginning to realize that a hand,
without a heart, is an empty thing.

Long after she had left him he lay motionless. This knowledge which had
come to him so suddenly had a bitter taste.

* * * * *

"You ought to get well, Hildreth, and you ought to be a very happy man,"
John Randolph spoke the words suddenly as he rose to take his leave.

"I never expect to be either. When a man has all he has prided himself
upon swept away from him, and all that he longs for denied him, how can
it be possible?"

"'Count it your highest good when God denies you.' Is that too hard a
gospel? We shall not read it so in the light of eternity. It is only
that Christ may become to us the 'altogether lovely' One."

"Did you ever love--a woman?" Louis put the question suddenly, watching
his friend's face with a jealous scrutiny.

"Yes." The answer was as simple and straightforward as the man. He knew
of nothing to be ashamed of in this beautiful love of his life.

"And her name was?--"

"Evadne."

John Randolph spoke the name for the first time to another, looking up
at the sky. When he turned to leave the room he saw that Louis' face was
buried among his cushions and he drove away in a great wonderment. What
could it all mean?

"Knocking, knocking, who is there?
Waiting, waiting, oh, how fair!
'T is a pilgrim, strange and kingly,
Never such was seen before.
Ah, my soul, for such a wonder,
Wilt thou not undo the door?"

Evadne sang the words softly in the twilight: sang them with a great
note of longing in her pleading voice. She and her cousin were alone.

"Evadne, come here."

She crossed the room and knelt beside his couch.

"Little coz, I have let the Pilgrim in."

And Evadne buried her face in the cushions with a low cry. The crown of
rejoicing was hers--at last!

* * * * *

"There is only one thing wanting between you two." Louis looked
wistfully at John Randolph and Evadne, as they stood beside him, talking
brightly of how he should help when he grew strong.

"And what is that?" Doctor Randolph asked the question with a smile.

Louis drew his ring from Evadne's finger and laid her hand in that of
his friend. "Take her, Randolph, she is worthy of you. I would not say
that of any other woman."

With a great joy surging in his heart, John Randolph