"Your father, the sahib, told me so much about Christianity that I could not sleep for thinking; I was sorrowed by the words of your good mother; but I had been such a bad man that I did not believe God would pardon me. But it was you, the daughter, who showed me that my Heavenly Father would pardon the greatest of sinners. I asked God to forgive me, and He did so; I found the jewel of great price; you had it long ago; take this not from me, but from my heart."
There could be no refusing such a request.
Thus it was that the Star of India came into the possession of Marian Hildreth.
"It is a fortune," said Dr. Avery some weeks later, "but vast as is its worth, a thousand such are not to be compared with my jewel,—my own beloved wife."
And she did not say him nay.
THE END.