im through me."

I could see that Mildred was deeply moved at this, and though I did not
intend to play upon her feelings, yet in the selfishness of my great
love I could not help doing so.

"You were the first of my girl friends, Mildred--the very first. Don't
you remember the morning after I arrived at school? They had torn me
away from my mother, and I was so little and lonely, but you were so
sweet and kind. You took me into church for my first visitation, and
then into the garden for my first rosary--don't you remember it?"

Mildred had closed her eyes. Her face was becoming very white.

"And then don't you remember the day the news came that my mother was
very ill, and I was to go home? You came to see me off at the station,
and don't you remember what you said when we were sitting in the train?
You said we might never meet again, because our circumstances would be
so different. You didn't think we should meet like this, did you?"

Mildred's face was growing deadly white.

"My darling mother died. She was all I had in the world and I was all
she had, and when she was gone there was no place for me in my father's
house, so I was sent back to school. But the Reverend Mother was very
kind to me, and the end of it was that I wished to become a nun. Yes
indeed, and never so much as on the day you took your vows."

Mildred's eyes were still closed, but her eyelids were fluttering and
she was breathing audibly.

"How well I remember it! The sweet summer morning and the snow-white
sunshine, and the white flowers and the white chapel of the Little
Sisters, and then you dressed as a bride in your white gown and long
white veil. I cried all through the ceremony. And if my father had not
come for me then, perhaps I should have been a nun like you now."

Mildred's lips were moving. I was sure she was praying to our Lady for
strength to resist my pleading, yet that only made me plead the harder.

"But God knows best what our hearts are made for," I said. "He knows
that mine was made for love. And though you may not think it I know God
knows that he who is away is my real husband--not the one they married
me to. You will not separate us, will you? All our happiness--his and
mine--is in your hands. You will save us, will you not?"

Some time passed before Mildred spoke. It may have been only a few
moments, but to me it seemed like an eternity. I did not know then that
Mildred was reluctant to extinguish the last spark