nd looked into
his waiting eyes with a trembling, shy glance, yet true and earnest.

"It will make a difference--to me!" she said. "I shall never feel quite
the same towards life again because I know there is such a wonderful man
in the world."

She had fine control of her voice now, and was holding back the tears.
Her manner of the world was coming to her aid. He must not see how much
this was to her, how very much. She put out a little cold hand and laid
it timidly in his big brown one, and he held it a moment and looked down
at it in great tenderness, closed his fingers over it in a strong clasp,
then laid it gently back in her lap as though it were too precious to
keep. Her heart thrilled and thrilled again at his touch.

"Thank you," he said simply, a great withdrawing in his tone. "But I
cannot see how you can think well of me. I am an utter stranger to you.
I have no right to talk of such things to you."

"You did not tell me," answered Hazel. "You told--God." Her voice was
slow and low with awe. "I only overheard. It was my fault--but--I am
not--sorry. It was a great--thing to hear!"

He watched her shy dignity as she talked, her face drooping and half
turned away. She was exquisitely beautiful in her confusion. His whole
spirit yearned towards hers.

"I feel like a monster," he said suddenly. "You know I love you, but you
do not understand how, in this short time even, you have filled my life,
my whole being. And yet I may not ever try or hope to win your love in
return. It must seem strange to you----"

"I think I understand," she said in a low voice; "you spoke of all that
in the night--you know." It seemed as if she shrank from hearing it
again.

"Will you let me explain it thoroughly to you?"

"If--you think best." She turned her face away and watched the eagle,
now a mere speck in the distance.

"You see it is this way. I am not free to do as I might wish--as other
men are free. I have consecrated my life to the service of God in this
place. I know--I knew when I came here--that it was no place to bring a
woman. There are few who could stand the life. It is filled with
privations and hardships. They are inevitable. You are used to tender
care and luxury. No man could ask a sacrifice like that of a woman he
loved. He would not be a man if he did. It is not like marrying a girl
who has felt the call herself, and loves to give her life to the work.
That would be a different matter. But a man has n