Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/282

 become the President, it would not change this fact, and it is everything."

"Then you love another."

"That is none of your business, sir. I have known you since childhood. I have had ample time to know my own mind."

"All right, we will say good-bye for the present. You have made me a laughing stock of young fools, but I can stand it. I'll not give you up, and if I can't have you, no other man shall."

"If you leave my will out of the calculation, you will make a fatal mistake."

"Women have been known to change their wills."

Before leaving her that night Gaston held her hand for an instant as he bade her good-bye and said, "Miss Sallie, I thank you with inexpressible gratitude for the honour you have done me."

"I've just been wondering what you have done to deserve it?"

"Absolutely nothing,—that's why it is so sweet. This has been the happiest day I ever lived. I cannot see you again before you go. I leave to-morrow on urgent business. May I come to Independence to see you?"

"Yes, I'll be delighted to see you. Good-night."

Gaston was the last to return to Hambright. He walked the two miles through the silent starlit woods. He took a short cut his bare feet had travelled as a boy, and with uncovered head walked slowly through the dim aisles of great trees. It was good, this cool silence and the soft mantle of the night about his soul! The stars whispered love. The wind sighed it through the leaves.

He had withdrawn from the church in his college days because he had grown to doubt everything—God, heaven, hell, and immortality. To-night as he walked slowly home he heard that wonderful sentence of the old Bible