“You are a strange woman!  Such devotion as his would have won any other being.  He is as much attached to you now as the day he first offered you his hand.  Upon my word, your obstinacy provokes me.  He is the noblest man I ever knew—­everything that I should suppose a woman of your nature would admire; and yet, year after year, you remain apparently as indifferent as ever.”

“And it were a miserable return for such unmerited love to marry him merely from gratitude.  I do admire him, but cannot marry him.  I told him so four years ago.”

“But why did you not at least answer his letter?”

“Because his acceptance was made the condition of an answer; a negative one was not expected, and I had no other to give.”

“Pardon me, Beulah; but why do you not love him?”

“A strange question truly.  My heart is not the tool of my will.”

“Beulah, do you intend to spend your life solitary and joyless, cut off, as you are here, from society, and dependent on books and music for sympathy?  Why will you not marry Reginald and make his home happy?”

“Eugene, I have told you before that I could not accept him, and told you why.  Let the subject drop; it is an unpleasant one to me.  I am happier here than I could possibly be anywhere else.  Think you I would marry merely for an elegant home and an intellectual companion?  Never!  I will live and die here in this little cottage rather than quit it with such motives.  You are mistaken in supposing that Mr. Lindsay is still attached to me.  It has been nearly two years since he wrote that letter, and from Georgia I hear that the world believes he is soon to marry a lady residing somewhere near him.  I think it more than probable the report is true, and hope most sincerely it may be so.  Now, Eugene, don’t mention the subject again, will you?”

“It is generally believed that he will be elected to Congress; next month will decide it.  The chances are all in his favor,” persisted Eugene.

“Yes; so I judged from the papers,” said she coolly, and then added:  “And one day I hope to see you, or rather hear of you, in Washington by his side.  I believe I shall be gratified; and oh, Eugene, what a proud moment it will be to me!  How I shall rejoice in your merited eminence.”

Her face kindled as she spoke; but the shadows deepened in his countenance, as he answered moodily: 

“Perhaps I may; but fame and position cannot lighten a loaded heart or kindle the sacred flame of love in a dreary home.  When a man blindly wrecks his happiness on the threshold of life by a fatal marriage, no after exertion can atone or rectify the one mistake.”

“Hush! she will hear you,” said Beulah, pointing to the little girl, who was slowly approaching them.

A bitter smile parted his lips.

“She is my all; yet precious as she is to my sad heart, I would gladly lay her in her grave to-morrow sooner than see her live to marry an uncongenial spirit, or know that her radiant face was clouded with sorrow, like mine.  God grant that her father’s wretched lot may warn her of the quicksands which nearly ingulfed him.”  He took the child in his arms, as if to shield her from some impending danger, and said hurriedly: