“Father, this is Kilmeny,” said Eric proudly.

Kilmeny held out her hand with a shyly murmured greeting.  Mr. Marshall took it and held it in his, looking so steadily and piercingly into her face that even her frank gaze wavered before the intensity of his keen old eyes.  Then he drew her to him and kissed her gravely and gently on her white forehead.

“My dear,” he said, “I am glad and proud that you have consented to be my son’s wife—­and my very dear and honoured daughter.”

Eric turned abruptly away to hide his emotion and on his face was a light as of one who sees a great glory widening and deepening down the vista of his future.

The end.