ace in his shoulder. "If--if you stay in your
room until breakfast time, I will lock you in, so you can not leave me
again. I know it. I am crazy to-day."

"Don't you think you owe me something, as well as your father and
sisters? Didn't God bring us together, and make us love each other?
Don't you think He intended us for each other? Do you wish you had
never met me?"

"Jerry!"

"Then, sweetheart, be reasonable. Your father loved your mother, and
married her. That is God's plan for all of us. You have been a
wonderfully brave and sweet daughter and sister, I know. But surely
Fairy is old enough to take your place now."

"Fairy's going to be a professor, and--the girls do not mind her very
well. And she isn't as much comfort to father as I am.--It's just
because I am most like mother, you see. But anyhow, I promised. I
can't leave them."

"Your father expects you to marry, and to marry me. I told him about
it myself, long ago. And he was perfectly willing. He didn't say a
word against it."

"Of course he wouldn't. That's just like father. But still, I
promised. And what would the girls say if I should go back on them?
They have trusted me, always. If I fail them, will they ever trust
anybody else? If you love me, Jerry, please go, and stay away." But
her arm tightened about his neck. "I'll wait here until you get your
things, and we can--say good-by. And don't forget your promise."

"Oh, very well, Prudence," he answered, half irritably, "if you insist
on ordering me away from the house like this, I can only go. But----"

"Let's not talk any more about it, Jerry. Please. I'll wait until you
come down."

When he came down a little later, with his suitcase, his face was white
and strained.

She put her arms around his neck. "Jerry," she whispered, "I want to
tell you that I love you so much that--I could go away with you, and
never see any of them any more, or papa, or the parsonage, and still
feel rich, if I just had you! You--everything in me seems to be all
yours. I--love you."

Her tremulous lips were pressed against his.

"Oh, sweetheart, this is folly, all folly. But I can't make you see
it. It is wrong, it is wickedly wrong, but----"

"But I am all they have, Jerry, and--I promised."

"Whenever you want me, Prudence, just send. I'll never change. I'll
always be just the same. God intended you for me, I know, and--I'll be
waiting."

"Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" she