“I must have within me,” answered Iola, with unaffected truthfulness, “a large amount of hero worship.  The characters of the Old Testament I most admire are Moses and Nehemiah.  They were willing to put aside their own advantages for their race and country.  Dr. Latimer comes up to my ideal of a high, heroic manhood.”

“I think,” answered Robert, smiling archly, “he would be delighted to hear your opinion of him.”

“I tell him,” continued Iola, “that he belongs to the days of chivalry.  But he smiles and says, ’he only belongs to the days of hard-pan service.’”

“Some one,” said Robert, “was saying to-day that he stood in his own light when he refused his grandmother’s offer to receive him as her son.”

“I think,” said Iola, “it was the grandest hour of his life when he made that decision.  I have admired him ever since I heard his story.”

“But, Iola, think of the advantages he set aside.  It was no sacrifice for me to remain colored, with my lack of education and race sympathies, but Dr. Latimer had doors open to him as a white man which are forever closed to a colored man.  To be born white in this country is to be born to an inheritance of privileges, to hold in your hands the keys that open before you the doors of every occupation, advantage, opportunity, and achievement.”

“I know that, uncle,” answered Iola; “but even these advantages are too dearly bought if they mean loss of honor, true manliness, and self respect.  He could not have retained these had he ignored his mother and lived under a veil of concealment, constantly haunted by a dread of detection.  The gain would not have been worth the cost.  It were better that he should walk the ruggedest paths of life a true man than tread the softest carpets a moral cripple.”

“I am afraid,” said Robert, laying his hand caressingly upon her head, “that we are destined to lose the light of our home.”

“Oh, uncle, how you talk!  I never dreamed of what you are thinking,” answered Iola, half reproachfully.

“And how,” asked Robert, “do you know what I am thinking about?”

“My dear uncle, I’m not blind.”

“Neither am I,” replied Robert, significantly, as he left the room.

Iola’s admiration for Dr. Latimer was not a one-sided affair.  Day after day she was filling a larger place in his heart.  The touch of her hand thrilled him with emotion.  Her lightest words were an entrancing melody to his ear.  Her noblest sentiments found a response in his heart.  In their desire to help the race their hearts beat in loving unison.  One grand and noble purpose was giving tone and color to their lives and strengthening the bonds of affection between them.

CHAPTER XXXII.

WOOING AND WEDDING.