business. I used to scoff at love at first sight and say it was all
the idle fancy of the poets. Then I met you and remained to pray.
You've turned my world topsy-turvy. I can't think without you, and yet
it would be folly to tell this to my Governor, and ask his consent to
our marriage. He wants me to finish college, take the usual trip
around the world and then go into the firm. Besides, he wants me to
eventually marry a cousin of mine--a girl with a lot of money and with
about as much heart as would fit on the end of a pin."

She had followed this speech with almost painful attention. She bit
her lips till they were but a compressed line of coral. At last she
found words to say:

"We must not talk of these things, Mr. Sanderson. I have to go back
and care for my mother. She is an invalid and needs all my attention.
Bedsides, we are poor; desperately poor. I am here in your world, only
through the kindness of my cousin, Mrs. Tremont."

"It was your world till a year ago, Anna. I know all about your
father's failure, and how nobly you have done your part since then, and
it kills me to think of you, who ought to have everything, spending
your life--your youth--in that stupid little Waltham, doing the work of
a housemaid."

"I am very glad to do my part," she answered him bravely, but her eyes
were full of unshed tears.

"Anna, dearest, listen to me." He crossed over to where she sat and
took her hand. "Can't you have a little faith in me and do what I am
going to ask you? There is the situation exactly. My father won't