tion in return for all this?"

"By being sensible, and telling me how to make signals, now that it is
as dark as it will be this moonlight night."

"Let me lean on you, as I ever shall figuratively hereafter. We will
go down to the outlook you found, build another fire, and wave burning
brands."

This was done. Henry Muir, who had grown very solicitous, saw their
signals, and promptly organized a rescuing party. A wood-road led well
up toward their position, and with the aid of some employes of the
house he at last rescued them. Graydon was weak and exhausted from
pain by the time he reached the hotel, yet felt that his happiness had
been purchased at very slight cost. The next day he was taken to his
city home, and Madge filled the days of his convalescence with such
varied entertainment that he threatened to break his leg again. She
had so trained her voice that she read or sang with almost tireless
ease. To furnish home music, to shine in the light of her own hearth,
had been the dream of her ambition; and to the man she had won she
made that hearth the centre of the gentle force which controlled and
blessed his life.

But little further remains to be said concerning the other characters
of this story. The severe lesson received by Stella Wildmere had a
permanent effect upon her character. It did not result in a very
high type of womanhood, for the limitations of her nature scarcely
permitted this; but it brought about decided changes for the better.
She was endowed with fair abilities and a certain hard, practical
sense, which enabled her to see the folly of her former scheme of
life. Blind, inconsiderate selfishness, which asked only, "What do I
wish the present moment?" had brought humiliation and disaster, and,
as her father had suggested, she possessed too much mind to repeat
that blunder. She recognized that she could not ignore natural
laws and duties and go very far in safety. Therefore, instead of
querulousness and repining, or showing useless resentment toward
her father for misfortunes which she had done nothing to avert, she
stepped bravely and helpfully to his side, and amid all the chaos of
the financial storm that was wrecking him he was happier than he had
been for years. Her beloved jewelry, and everything that could be
legally saved from their dismantled home, was disposed of to the best
advantage. Then very modest apartments were taken in a suburb, and
both she and her father began again. He o