reacher took Mary's hand.

"Your father is my friend, child. This is for him----"

He bent quickly and kissed her lips, while Jim gasped in astonishment.

The minister's wife congratulated them both. The two older children
smilingly advanced and added their voices in good wishes.

Mary whispered to Jim:

"Don't forget the preacher's fee!"

"Lord, how much? Will fifty be enough? It's all I've got."

"Give him twenty. We'll need the rest."

It was not until they were seated in the waiting cab and sank back among
the shadows, that Jim crushed her in his arms and kissed her until she
cried for mercy.

"The gall of that preacher, kissing you!" he muttered savagely. "You
know, I come within an ace of pasting him one on the nose!"

CHAPTER XI. "UNTIL DEATH"

The lights burned in the hall with unusual brightness. Ella stood in the
open door of the room, through which the light was streaming. With its
radiance came the perfume of roses--the scrub-woman's gift of love. The
room was a bower of gorgeous flowers. She had spent her last cent in
this extravagance. Mary swept the place with a look of amazement.

"Oh, Ella," she cried, "how could you be so silly!"

"You like them, ja?" Ella asked softly.

"They're glorious--but you should not have made such a sacrifice for
me."

"For myself, maybe, I do it--all for myself to make me happy, too,
tonight."

She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand and placed the chairs
beside the beautifully set table.

"Dinner is all ready," she announced cheerfully. "And shall I go now and
leave you? Or will you let me serve your dinner first?"

A sudden panic seized the bride.

"Stay and serve the dinner, Ella, if you will," she quickly answered.

Jim frowned, but seated himself in business-like fashion.

"All right; I'm ready for it, old girl!"

With soft tread and swift, deft touch, Ella served the dinner, standing
prim and stiff and ghost-like behind Jim's chair between the courses.

The bride watched her, fascinated by the pallor of her haggard face and
the queer suggestion of Death which her appearance made in spite of the
background of flowers. She had dressed herself in a simple skirt and
shirtwaist of spotless white. The material seemed to be draped on her
tall figure, thin to emaciation. The chalk-like pallor of her face
brought out with startling sharpness the deep, hollow caverns beneath
her straight eyebrows. Her single eye shone unusually bright.