The Rector of St. Mark's

Sunday school, there was a feeling of disquiet and depression, occasioned partly by that rencontre with pretty Lucy Harcourt, and partly by the uncertainty as to what Anna's answer might be. He

red up every incident which he could wish forgotten. With Anna Ruthven absorbing every thought and feeling of his heart, it was

dmired her greatly and loved to wander with her amid the Alpine scenery, listening to her wild bursts of enthusiasm, and watching the kindling light in her blue eyes,

siren's side, might have ripened into love. But he left her in time to escape what he felt would have been a most unfortunate affair for him, for, sweet and

dering next how he could persuade Lucy Harcourt that between the young theological student, sailing in a gondola through the streets of Venice, and the rector of St

recalled the time when she had, at his own request, first called him Arthur, her bird-lik

is hardly the name by w

ur to you. I love to hear you call me so,

thing which had passed between them, if we except the time when he had said good-by, and wiped

fighting back the thoughts which had whispered that in his intercourse with her he had not been all guiltless, and th

ll now, when Lucy herself had brought them back again with her winsome

nts in that quarter," the clergyman was thinking, just as his housekeeper came up, bringing him two notes-one

d first, read

t Hill,

west woods to-morrow afternoon, and she requests the pleasure of your

rs t

uc

e plenty of opportunities down in those deep woods. On the whole, it would be pleasanter to hear t

as he took the other note-the one which Mrs. Meredith had shut herself in her bedro

nage, never yielding to the temptation to read it, just as she had read the one abstracted from the book,

h's note was

urday. She desires me to say that, though she has a very great regard for you as her clergyman and friend, she cannot be your wife, an

e and good as she knows you to be, and she only does it because she ca

not, she asks that the subject may never in any way, be alluded to again; that when you meet it may be exactly as

has occurred, sorry for you both, and especially sorry for you; but, believe me, you will get

al. You will find Anna

dially and

e Mer

he bent his head upon the back of a chair, and tried to realize the magnitude of the blow which had fallen so suddenly upon

eighed down with so great a load of pain and humiliation: for it touched the young man's pride that, not content to refuse him, Anna had chosen another than herself as the mediu

ar as was his faith in God, who doeth all things well, he l

e than I

sight, so God had not forgotten, and the darkness broke at last-the lips coul

f sunlight into the rector's mind, and ere the day was

im nearly wild with pain. He had been subject to headaches all his life, but he had never suffered as he was suffering now but once, and that was on a

thrilled him as the touch of Anna's did when they hung the Christ

o think of it, for the bright hopes which were budding then were blighted now and dead; and, with a moan, he

then, as he remembered Thornton's letter, and that his man Thomas would be coming soon to ask if t

o say that I have no claim on Anna Ruthven, and you are free to press your suit as urgently as you please. She is a noble girl, worthy even to be

always confided in you, and so I may as well confess th

r Leig

s written. He had told his grievance to som

st, it's true, but a splendid fellow, after all. He will sympathize with me

een two men, but rarely between two women, of so widely different temperaments. They had roomed together four years in college, and countless were the difficulties from which the so

in possession of a few thousand dollars, which enabled him to travel in Europe for a ye

accepted what God offered to him, and been very happy there, especially since Anna Ruthven came home from Troy and made such havoc with his heart.

hough deep and sore, and bleeding yet, was not quite as hard to bear as it had been