"If I could convert you even now," said Walter, earnestly, "I would resign her to you the very moment in which she is free."
"You cannot convert me, Walter," Ronald answered with a sad smile. "God only knows what I have suffered through this belief of mine, but I cannot change it, nor act inconsistently with it. Yet I could not ask Lina to remain alone all her life because my own views are at variance with the rest of the world, or a majority of it, at least. I hope that you may make her very happy."
"I shall try, certainly," Walter said, earnestly. "If I recover, and I feel as if I cannot die now, with this prospect of happiness in the future, I shall marry Lina as soon as Professor Larue has secured a divorce for her. I shall take her back to Laurel Hill, and spend my life in trying to win her heart and make her happy."
"And I," said Ronald, with brave composure, "shall marry Violet as soon as you are well enough to go to church with us. Then we shall make our home across the sea in sunny Italy."
Walter Earle rose feebly on his elbow and stared at his friend.
"Marry Violet—marry Violet," he cried, incredulously.
"Yes—I asked her to-day, and she said she would be my wife."
"You do not love her?" Walter exclaimed, bewildered.
"Not yet," the poet confessed, flushing slightly, at Walter's surprised gaze.
"Why marry her then?"