before any other opinion in the world. You know her well far better than
I do. Tell me honestly do you think she could ever love me?"

"You have given me a hard task," said Charles Osmond. "But you have
asked for my honest opinion, and you must have it. As long as her father
lives I don't believe Erica will ever love a man well enough to marry
him. I remember, in my young days, a beautiful girl in our neighborhood,
the belle of the whole county; and years went by, and she had countless
offers, but she rejected them all. People used to remonstrate with her,
and ask her how it was. 'Oh,' she used to reply, 'that is very easily
explained.. I never see a man I think equal to my own brothers!' Now,
whatever faults Raeburn has, we may be sure Erica sees far less plainly
than we see, and nobody can deny that he is a grand fellow. When one
bears in mind all that he has had against him, his nobility of character
seems to me marvelous. He puts us to shame. And that is why he seems to
me the wholesome though powerful medicine for this nineteenth century of
ours, with its great professions and its un-Christlike lives."

"What is the use of patience what is the use of love," exclaimed Brian,
"if I am never to serve her?"

"Never! Who said so?" said his father smiling. "Why, you have been
serving her every blessed day since you first loved her. Is unspoken
love worth nothing? Are prayers useless? Is it of no service to let your
light shine? But I see how it is. As a doctor, you look upon pain as the
one great enemy to be fought with, to be bound down, to be conquered.
You want to shield Erica from pain, which she can't be shielded from, if
she is to go on growing.

"'Knowledge by suffering entereth!'

No one would so willingly indorse the truth of that as she herself.
And it will be so to the end of the chapter. You can't shut her up in a
beautiful casket, and keep her from all pain. If you could she would no
longer be the Erica you love. As for the rest, I may be wrong. She may
have room for wifely love even now. I have only told you what I think.
And whether she ever be your wife or not and from my heart I hope she
may be your love will in no case be wasted. Pure love can't be wasted;
it's an impossibility."

Brian sighed heavily, but made no answer. Presently he took up his hat
and went out. He walked on and on without the faintest idea of time or
place, occupied only with the terrible struggle which was going on
in h