ve been happily associated
with all my past life and which I trust confidently to your indulgence.

"A last word, to remind you of what you may be too kind to think of
yourself.

"At my age, you cannot, in the course of Nature, be troubled by the
society of a grateful old woman for many years. You are young enough to
look forward to another marriage, which shall be something more than
a mere form. Even if you meet with the happy woman in my lifetime,
honestly tell me of it--and I promise to tell her that she has only to
wait.

"In the meantime, don't think, because I write composedly, that I write
heartlessly. You pleased and interested me, when I first saw you, at the
public meeting. I don't think I could have proposed, what you call this
sacrifice of myself, to a man who had personally repelled me--though I
might have felt my debt of gratitude as sincerely as ever. Whether your
ship is saved, or whether your ship is lost, old Mary Callender likes
you--and owns it without false shame.

"Let me have your answer this evening, either personally or by
letter--whichever you like best."

VIII.

MRS. CALLENDER received a written answer long before the evening. It
said much in few words:

"A man impenetrable to kindness might be able to resist your letter. I
am not that man. Your great heart has conquered me."

The few formalities which precede marriage by special license were
observed by Ernest. While the destiny of their future lives was still
in suspense, an unacknowledged feeling of embarrassment, on either side,
kept Ernest and Mrs. Callender apart. Every day brought the lady her
report of the state of affairs in the City, written always in the same
words: "No news of the ship."

IX.

ON the day before the ship-owner's liabilities became due, the terms of
the report from the City remained unchanged--and the special license
was put to its contemplated use. Mrs. Callender's lawyer and Mrs.
Callender's maid were the only persons trusted with the secret. Leaving
the chief clerk in charge of the business, with every pecuniary demand
on his employer satisfied in full, the strangely married pair quitted
England.

They arranged to wait for a few days in Paris, to receive any letters of
importance which might have been addressed to Ernest in the interval.
On the evening of their arrival, a telegram from London was waiting
at their hotel. It announced that the missing ship had passed up
Channel--undiscovered in a