wn up
and it is the truth that Rast has loved me for _yeers_ of his own accord
and because he could not help it--deerest sister who can. But he never
ment to break his word to you and he tryed not to but was devowered by
his love for me and you will forgive him deerest sister will you not
since there is no more hope for you as we were married by Pere Michaux
an hour ago who approved of all and has hartily given us his
bennydiction. Since my spiritual directeur has no reproche you will not
have enny I am sure and remain your loving sister,

ANGELIQUE PRONANDO."

"P. S. We go to Chicago to-day. Enny money for _close_ for me could be
sent to the Illinois Hotel, where my deerest husband says we are to
stay.

A. P."

Pere Michaux's letter:

"DEAR ANNE,--It is not often that I speak so bluntly as I shall speak
now. In marrying, this morning, your half-sister Angelique to Erastus
Pronando I feel that I have done you a great service. You did not love
him with the real love of a nature like yours--the love that will
certainly come to you some day; perhaps has already come. I have always
known this, and, in accordance with it, did all I could to prevent the
engagement originally. I failed; but this day's work has made up for the
failure.

"Angelique has grown into a woman. She is also very beautiful, after a
peculiar fashion of her own. All the strength of her nature, such as it
is, is concentrated upon the young man who is now her husband. From
childhood she has loved him; she was bitterly jealous of you even before
you went away. I have been aware of this, but until lately I was not
sure of Rast. Her increasing beauty, however, added to her intense
absorbed interest in him, has conquered. Seeing this, I have watched
with satisfaction the events of the past summer, and have even assisted
somewhat (and with a clear conscience) in their development.

"Erastus, even if you had loved him, Anne, could not have made you
happy. And neither would you have made him happy; for he is
quick-witted, and he would have inevitably, and in spite of all your
tender humility, my child, discovered your intellectual superiority, and
in time would have angrily resented it. For he is vain; his nature is
light; he needs adulation in order to feel contented. On the other hand,
he is kind-hearted and affectionate, and to Tita will be a demi-god
always. The faults that would have been death to you, she will never
see. She is therefore the fit wi