t morning, and the look in his eyes when they
rested upon her, as he said good-bye, lingering a moment as if loth to
leave her, and then Dick's chance, if he had ever had any, was gone!

'I do not believe it,' she said to herself, and then, turning her face
to Dick she cried: 'Oh, Dick, I am so sorry you have said this to me;
sorry that you love me--in this way--for I can't--I can't--. I do love
you as a friend, a brother, next to Harold, but I cannot be your wife. I
cannot.'

For a moment there was perfect silence in the darkness, and then a lurid
flame of lightning showed the two faces--that of the man pale as ashes,
with a look of bitter pain upon it, and that of the woman, whiter than
the man's and bathed in upon which fell almost as fast as the rain drops
were falling tears, the pines.

Then Dick spoke, but his voice sounded strange and unnatural and a great
ways off:

'If I wait a long, long time--say a year, or two, or three--do you think
you could learn to love me just a little? I will not ask for much; only,
Jerrie, I do hunger so for you that without you life would seem a
blank.'

'No, Dick; not if you waited twenty years. I must still answer no. I
cannot love you as your wife should love you, and as some good, sweet
girl will one day love you when you have forgotten me.'

This is what Jerrie said to him, with much more, until he knew she was
in earnest and felt as if his heart were breaking.

'I shall never forget you, Jerrie,' he said, 'or cease to hope that you
will change your mind, unless--' and here he started so suddenly that
the wet parasol, down which streams of water were still coursing their
way to Jerrie's back, dropped from his hand and rolled off upon the bed
of fine needles at his feet, just where it had been in the morning when
Tom was there instead of himself--'unless there is some one between us,
some other man whom you love. I will not ask you the question, but I
believe I could bear it better if I knew it was because your love was
already given to another, and not because of anything in me.'

For a moment Jerrie was silent; then suddenly facing Dick, she laid her
hand on his and said:

'I can trust you, I am sure of that; there is some one between us--some
one whom I love. If I had never seen him, Dick, never known that he
lived--and if I had known you just as I do, I might not have answered
just as I have. I am very sorry.'

Dick did not ask her who his rival was, nor did Harol