without including Huntington, but,
entirely aside from the fact that this omission would have been a marked
slight, his co-operation in bringing Hamlen to this satisfactory
condition had been so conspicuous that there was no alternative. Mrs.
Thatcher was apprehensive lest he take advantage of his influence with
Hamlen to strengthen his will against her judgment; but this was a
chance she had to take.

Could she have read his mind Marian would have found nothing to fear
from Huntington. His familiarity with Merry's nature made him aware,
soon after his arrival, of the fact that something of unusual moment had
occurred. There was a hectic excitement in her welcome, a yearning in
her eyes, otherwise unexplained, which went straight to his heart and
prepared him for the climax in the great renunciation of his life.

"When the supreme test comes," she had told him, "I shall accept it";
and he was convinced that the test had come and been accepted.

"Ah, well!" he sighed deeply, "who am I to interfere?"

It was the second day after his arrival before they finally found
themselves alone together, and he realized that Merry had been awaiting
this opportunity to have with him one of those intimate conversations
which previously he had so much enjoyed. Now, knowing what was coming,
he dreaded it. Until the words were spoken he could at least deceive
himself into believing that he might be wrong, and this self-deception
was all he now had left.

"Let us sit down here in the sand," she said to him, "just as we used to
at Elba Beach."

"I wish we were back there now," he answered feelingly, as he responded
to her request.

"We always wish for something we have had, instead of something we are
going to have, don't we?" she asked, her hand modeling indefinite
figures in the damp sand. "I wonder why that is."

"Because the past is known, and we can select the happy moments as we
choose. The future is unknown, and we must take it as it comes."

"Oh, if we could only look into that future!" she exclaimed suddenly.
"If we could only be sure that in it we could correct our mistakes! How
that would simplify the problems of the present!"

"Why speak so strongly?" he asked. "That belongs to those who have
mistakes to correct."

"I have been thinking of myself all my life," she replied, at once
making the personal application. "I formed an ideal which I insisted
upon realizing, and when I found it at last it proved beyond my rea