dertone,
and did not have to finish to make us understand.

"He does," murmured the smiling wife.

"Then why shouldn't he tell her so?"

"My dear!" objected the wife, very softly and prettily.

"I don't mean to speak lightly," responded the husband, "but--they love
each other; they suit each other; they complete each other; they don't
feel their disparity of years; they're both so linked to Alice that it
would break either heart over again to be separated from her. I don't
see why"--

Laura shook her head, smiling in the gentle way that only the happy
wives of good men have.

"It will never be."

* * *

What changes!

"The years creep slowly by"--

We seem to hear the old song yet. What changes! Laura has put two more
leaves into her dining-table. Children fill three seats. Alice has
another. It is she, now, not her chair, that is tall--and fair. Mary,
too, has a seat at the same board. This is their home now. Her hair is
turning all to silver. So early? Yes; but she is--she never was--so
beautiful! They all see it--feel it; Dr. Sevier--the gentle, kind,
straight old Doctor--most of all. And oh! when they two, who have never
joined hands on this earth, go to meet John and Alice,--which God grant
may be at one and the same time,--what weeping there will be among God's
poor!

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dr. Sevier, by George W. Cable

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