me thus again, for it gives me pain
to know that any one's life should be marred through me; put this
affection away from you--crush it in your heart, and seek some dear, good
girl who will love you and make you happier than I possibly could, if I
should yield to your suit without any heart to give you."

"Put this love out of my heart! crush it!" burst forth the young man,
with pale lips. "Could you do that, Mona Montague, if the man you loved
should stand coldly up before you and bid you to do so?"

Mona flushed, and hot tears sprang into her eyes. She knew, but too well,
that she could never crush out of her heart her love for Raymond Palmer.

If Louis Hamblin had bestowed but a tithe of such affection upon
her there was indeed a sad future in store for him, and the deepest
sympathies of her nature were aroused for him.

"I am sorry--" she began, falteringly, as she lifted her swimming eyes
to his face, and both look and tone stirred him to hot rebellion, for he
knew well enough of what she had been thinking.

"How sorry are you?" he cried, in a low, intense tone; "sorry enough to
try to do for me what you have bidden me do for another? Will you crush
your love for Ray Palmer, and bestow it upon me?"

Mona recoiled beneath these fierce, hot words, while she inwardly
resented the selfishness and rudeness of his question.

Still she tried to make some allowance for his bitter disappointment and
evident suffering.

"I do not think you have any right to speak to me like that," she said,
in tones of gentle reproof, though her face was crimson with conscious
blushes.

"Have I no right to say to you what you have said to me?" he demanded.
"You have said that no woman should marry a man whom she does not love,
while, in the very next breath you bid me go 'seek for some dear, good
girl,' and ask her to marry me, who can never love any woman but you.
Are you considerate--are you consistent?"

"Perhaps not," she returned, sorrowfully, "but I did not mean to be
inconsistent or to wound you--I could hardly believe that you cared so
deeply! I hoped you might be mistaken in your assertion that no other
affection could be rooted in your heart."

"There may be other natures besides your own that are capable of
tenacious affection," he retorted, with exceeding bitterness.

"True," Mona said, sighing heavily, "but," driven to desperation, and
facing him with sudden resolution, "I cannot respond to your suit as you
wish;