them
eloquent if I could but hold your hands clasped tightly in my own
at this moment and whisper them to you.

"If you can but care for me, dear Jessie, I will be the happiest
man the whole world holds. Your 'yes' or 'no' will mean life or
death for me.

"I can not think, after all that I have gone through, that Heaven
would be so cruel as to have me hope for your love in vain. When I
come to you, Jessie, I shall ask you for my answer. I am an
impatient lover; I count the long days and hours that must wing
their slow flight by until we meet again.

"I will not take you to the home of my mother, Jessie, dear, for I
quite believe you would be happier with me elsewhere. There is a
beautiful little cottage in the suburbs of the city, a charming,
home-like place. By the time that this letter reaches you I will
have purchased it, so confident am I that I can win you, little
Jessie.

"I shall set workmen upon it at once, to make a veritable fairy's
bower of it ere you behold it, and it will be ready for us by early
spring.

"We will spend the intervening time--which will be our
honey-moon--either in Florida or abroad, as best pleases you. Your
will shall be my law. I will make you so happy, Jessie, that you
will never regret the hour in which you gave your heart to me.

"It will take but a day for this letter to reach you, and another
must elapse ere I can hear from you. They will be two days hard for
me to endure, Jessie. When a man is in love--deeply, desperately
in love--it is madness for him to attempt to do any kind of
business, as his mind is not on it, he can think of but one
object--the girl whom he idolizes. His one hope is to be near her,
his one prayer is that her love is his, in return for the mighty
affection that sways his whole being, and leads him into the
ideal--the soul-world, which throws the halo of memory and
anticipation around the image of her whom he loves.

"Yours lovingly,
"Hubert Varrick."

Jessie Bain read the letter through, the color coming and going on her
face, her heart aglow. Once, twice, thrice she read it through, then,
with a little sob, she pressed it closely to her breast.

"Hubert Varrick loves me!" Jessie whispered the words over and over
again to herself, wondering if she should not awake presently and find
it only an empty dream.