don't intend to lose another day. What do I care about your father
and mother? What did they care about you? You owe all the rest of
your life to yourself and to me. Come! will you consent willingly
or--" He paused. She was very still in his arms for a long time.

"I do so want to be happy," she said at last, reflectively. "No,
no! don't say anything yet. I am only wondering how it will be
after we've been married for a few years. When I'm growing old and
plain, and you begin to tire of me as most men grow weary of their
wives--what then? Ah, Graydon, I--I have thought about all that,
too. You'll never reproach me openly--you couldn't do that, I know.
But you may secretly nourish the scorn which--"

"Jane," he said, dropping the tone of confident authority and
speaking very tenderly, "you forget that my father is a convict.
You forget that he has done things which will forever keep me a
beggar at your feet. I am asking YOU to forget and overlook inuch
more than you could ever ask of me. Old Elias, wretch that he is,
has pointed out our ways for us; they run together in spite of what
may conspire to divide them. Jane, I love my soul, but I love you
ten thousand times better than my soul."

"I did not believe I could ever be so happy again," she murmured,
putting her hands to his face.

"To-morrow, dear?"

"Yes."

Graydon, rejoicing in his final victory, hurried to his rooms later