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 *vice, unswerving fidelity to conviction, unselfish devotion to those held dear.

"Far be it from me to tempt you, Reuben," Mr. De Vere said humbly. "You understand that Hernando has leprosy, and that, awake or asleep, you are to have him ready to be moved to Shushan by ten o'clock to-night."

Not a muscle in that black face moved; and fearing he had not understood, Mr. De Vere repeated—"Leprosy."

"Yes, Massa, I s'pected it when the doctah was hyah."

A slight noise in Hernando's room attracted Reuben's attention and he quickly entered it, locking the door behind him.

Eletheer came out of the library where Mr. De Vere had been closeted with his family for nearly an hour. No outsider will ever know how the awful truth was told there, but the girl Eletheer came out of that room a woman. She wandered aimlessly downstairs. Not a cloud dimmed the intense blue of the heavens, and all nature seemed quivering with new life. The sunny valley lifted