her thin finger.

"You love him very much?"

"Don't know as I do--no more than lots of other fellows; but I won't
have any more chances now. I didn't ask to be born into this world, and
somebody in it owes me a living."

"See here, Mary!" said the nurse, in a suddenly energetic tone that
made the girl look up at her with startled eyes. "You know, as well as I
do, that you can't make that man marry you. Why not give him back his
ring of your own free will?"

"Why should I? You think I aint in love?"

"Love? You don't know what the word means in any but its very lowest
sense. Suppose you stop loving men, and take to loving women and
children; you'll find them much more grateful, I can tell you."

Mary closed her eyes, but there were no eyelashes to keep the tears from
trickling out upon the scarred face.

"My dear child!" said Nurse Dean, in a voice hardly recognizable, it was
so sympathetic, "you've been fighting for yourself ever since you can
remember, and you haven't made much of it, have you?"

The girl's lips shaped an inaudible "No."

"Wouldn't it be a good idea, then, to try a little fighting for other
people?"

"I haven't any folks."

"Your 'folks' are whoever you can help in any way. What have you done
yet to deserve a foothold on this earth? Instead of seeing how much you
can get out of everybody, turn round and see how much you can do for
them."

* * * * *

There was a long silence. When Nurse Dean thought her charge was falling
asleep, she placed a shawl carefully over her, but Mary, without opening
her eyes, drew something from her left hand to her right.

"You can give him back his ring," she said.

Nurse Dean closed the door softly behind her, and then paused for a
moment to wipe an impertinent tear from her cold gray eye.

"I shouldn't be at all surprised if the smallpox were just The Making of
Mary."

THE END.

THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY
OF
CHOICE ORIGINAL FICTION.

The volumes are long and narrow, just the right shape to slip into the
pocket, and are bound in flexible cloth and ornamented with a chaste
design. The type is large and the margin generous.

Price, per volume, 50 cents.

1. Mademoiselle Ixe. By Lanoe Falconer.

2. The Story of Eleanor Lambert. By Magdalen Brooke.

3. A Mystery of the Campagna, and A Shadow on the Wave. By Von Degen.

4. The Friend of Death. Adapted from the Spanish by Mary J. Serrano.

5. Philippa; or, U