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[The Wedding-Ring][3]
[Messengers at the Window][25]
[The Countersign of the Cradle][43]
[The Key of the Tower][67]
[The Ripening of the Fruit][73]
[The King's Jewel][80]
[The Music-Lover][87]
[Humoreske][103]
[An Old Game][139]
[The Unruly Sprite][144]
[A Change of Air][156]
[The Night Call][167]
[The Effectual Fervent Prayer][203]
[The Return of the Charm][235]
[Beggars Under the Bush][249]
[Stronghold][257]
[In the Odour of Sanctity][266]
[The Sad Shepherd][287]
[The Mansion][325]

ILLUSTRATIONS

It did people good to buy of herFrontispiece
From a drawing by Charles S. Chapman.
Facing page
The King's Jewel[82]
From a drawing by Garth Jones.
The Music-Lover[90]
From a drawing by Sigismond de Ivanowski.
The Unruly Sprite[154]
From a drawing by Garth Jones.
She flung herself across his knees and put her arms around him[230]
From a drawing by Paul Julien Meylan.
Stronghold[258]
From a drawing by Garth Jones.
So the sad shepherd thanked them for their entertainment[314]
From a drawing by Blendon Campbell.
Title-page, head and end pieces by Garth Jones

THE WEDDING-RING

Before Toinette Girard made up her mind to marry Prosper Leclère,—you remember the man at Abbéville who had such a brave heart that he was not willing to fight with an old friend,—before Toinette perceived and understood how brave Prosper was, it seemed as if she were very much in doubt whether she did not love some one else more than she loved him, whether he and she really were made for each other, whether, in short, she cared for him enough to give herself entirely to him.

But after they had been married six weeks there was no doubt left in her mind. He was the one man in the world for her. He satisfied her to the core—although by this time she knew most of his faults. It was not so much that she loved him in spite of them, but she simply could not imagine him changed in any way without losing a part of him, and that idea was both intolerable and incredible to her. Just as he was, she clung to him and became one with him.