o to them for everything I
want. I do not expect they will tell me that they are going to take me
to a convent unless I will submit to them--they are too wise for that;
they will plan to go on a journey, say they are going to shut up the
house, and I must of course go with them; then when they get to Montreal
they will force me into a convent," Violet said, excitedly.

"I cannot believe that they would do anything so underhanded and
dishonorable," said Wallace, greatly shocked.

"They will," Violet persisted, excitedly. "Belle said 'anything was fair
in love and war,' and when she gets aroused, as she was last night, she
stops at nothing. Then, too, she hinted at some secret, and I am greatly
troubled over it."

"Violet," began Wallace, solemnly, as he bent to look into her face,
while he held her hands in almost a painful clasp, "are you sure that
you love me--that you will never regret the promise that you made me
last night? You are very young, you have seen but little of the world,
and a larger experience might cause you to change by and by."

Violet's delicate fingers closed over his spasmodically.

"Wallace! you are not sorry! Oh, do not tell me that you regret, and
that I am to lose you," she pleaded, almost hysterically.

"My darling," he answered, with gentle fondness, "you are all the world
to me, and if I should lose you, I should lose all that makes life
desirable; but I wish you to count the cost of your choice and not make
enemies of your only friends, to regret it later."

"No, Wallace--no! I shall not regret it. I love you with my whole heart,
and--I shall die if we are separated," Violet concluded, with a pathetic
little sob that went straight to her lover's heart.

His face grew luminous with a great joy; he knew then that she belonged
to him for all time.

"Then listen, love," he said; and bending, he placed his lips close to
her ear, and whispered for a minute or two.

Violet listened, while a strange, wondering expression grew on her fair
face, and a burning blush mounted to her brow and lost itself among the
rings of soft, golden hair that lay clustering there.

She was very grave, almost awe-stricken, when he concluded, and then she
stood for a moment silently thinking.

"Yes," she said, softly, at last, and dropped her face upon the hands
that were still clasping hers.

They stood thus for another moment, then Wallace led her to a seat, and
sitting down beside her, they conversed i