"There is—experience. Have you had a desirable proposal of marriage?"
"Eminently desirable."
"And still you do not intend to marry?"
"Not while I live."
"Ah, that is all the guarantee we want," said Lord Silverdale smiling. "Afterwards—in heaven—there is no marrying, nor giving in marriage."
"That is what makes it heaven," added Lillie. "But tell us your story."
"It was in this way. I was staying at a boarding-house in Brighton with a female cousin, and a handsome young man in the house fell in love with me and we were engaged. Then my mother came down. Immediately afterwards my lover disappeared. He left a note for me containing nothing but the following verses."
She handed a double tear-stained sheet of letter-paper to the President, who read aloud as follows:
A VISION OF THE FUTURE.
"Well is it for man that he knoweth not what the future will bring forth."