f his hand to Strong.

"Esther agrees with you on that point," said Strong, beginning to think
it time that this scene should end. "I don't mind telling you, too, that
since I have seen her stand out against your persecution, I would give
any chance I have of salvation if she would marry me; but you needn't be
alarmed about it,--she won't!"

"She will!" broke in Hazard abruptly. "You have betrayed me, and your
conduct is all of a piece with your theories." Then turning to Esther,
who still stood motionless and silent before the fire, he went on: "I am
beaten. You have driven me away, and I will never trouble you again,
till, in your days of suffering and anguish you send to me for hope and
consolation. Till then--God bless you!"

The silence was awful when his retreating footsteps could no longer be
heard. It was peace, but the peace of despair. As the sound of the
jangling sleigh-bells slowly receded from the door, and Esther realized
that the romance of her life was ended, she clasped her hands together
in a struggle to control her tears. Strong walked once or twice up and
down the room, buried in thought, then suddenly stopping before her, he
said in his straight-forward, practical way:

"Esther, I meant it! you have fought your battle like a heroine. If you
will marry me, I will admire and love you more than ever a woman was
loved since the world began."

Esther looked at him with an expression that would have been a smile if
it had not been infinitely dreary and absent; then she said, simply and
finally:

"But George, I don't love you, I love him."

THE END.

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