“If she feels that the hand of duty points out this destiny as hers, I shall not attempt to dissuade her; for peace of mind and heart is found nowhere, save in accordance with the dictates of conscience and judgment.  Since Miss Harding’s arrival at Le Bocage, I fear Edna will realize rapidly that she is no longer needed as a companion by Mrs. Murray, and her proud spirit will rebel against the surveillance to which I apprehend she is already subjected.  She has always expressed a desire to maintain herself by teaching, but I suspect that she will do so by her pen.  When she prepares to quit Mrs. Murray’s house I shall offer her a home in mine; but I have little hope that she will accept it, much as she loves me, for she wants to see something of that strange mask called ‘life’ by the world.  She wishes to go to some large city, where she can command advantages beyond her reach in this quiet little place, and where her own exertions will pay for the roof that covers her.  However we may deplore this decision, certainly we can not blame her for the feeling that prompts it.”

“I have racked my brain for some plan by which I could share my fortune with her without her suspecting the donor; for if she rejects my hand, I know she would not accept one cent from me.  Can you suggest any feasible scheme?”

Mr. Hammond shook his head, and after some reflection answered: 

“We can do nothing but wait and watch for an opportunity of aiding her.  I confess, Gordon, her future fills me with serious apprehension; she is so proud, so sensitive, so scrupulous, and yet so boundlessly ambitious.  Should her high hopes, her fond dreams be destined to the sharp and summary defeat which frequently overtakes ambitious men and women early in life, I shudder for her closing years and the almost unendurable bitterness of her disappointed soul.”

“Why do you suppose that she aspires to authorship?”

“She has never intimated such a purpose to me; but she can not be ignorant of the fact that she possesses great talent, and she is too conscientious to bury it.”

“Mr. Hammond, you may be correct in your predictions, but I trust you are wrong; and I can not believe that any woman whose heart is as warm and noble as Edna’s, will continue to reject such love as I shall always offer her.  Of one thing I feel assured, no man will ever love her as well, or better than I do, and to this knowledge she will awake some day.  God bless her! she is the only woman I shall ever want to call my wife.”

“I sympathize most keenly with your severe disappointment, my dear young friend, and shall earnestly pray that in this matter God will overrule all things for your happiness as well as hers.  He who notes the death of sparrows, and numbers even the hairs of our heads, will not doom your noble, tender heart to life-long loneliness and hunger.”

With a long, close clasp of hands they parted.  Gordon Leigh walked sadly between the royal lily-rows, hoping that the future would redeem the past; and the old man sat alone in the serene, silent night, watching the shimmer of the moon on the marble that covered his dead.