Her joy had not been taken from her; it was the promise that no one should take it, and nothing that any man could do. She was not afraid for John Wheatcroft; his treasure was laid away from the touch of earth.

"You don't think I am wicked not to want to marry him, do you, Miss Ranesford?" suddenly exclaimed the girlish voice.

"Wicked is to disobey God."

"This is not disobeying him, is it?”

Clara's smile reassured her.

"Let them marry to

whom they will.' Don't you remember Mrs. Hooker reading that to us one day? It was the privilege granted to the daughters of Zelophehad. Only they should in their own tribe. If you do not go outside the discipleship of Christ I think you may choose whom to marry. Only in the Lord' is the limit for Christian men and women. The rest of the choice is left to our own common sense, our tastes, our inclination, to the something in ́us that knows when we are satisfied."

"I am glad about that," said Mariah brightly. "Being a disciple isn't all then."

"There are many, many disciples that it would make me perfectly miserable to marry,” replied Clara with a laugh. "There is free will in marriage, or it would not be a type of Christ and the church; whosoever will Christ calls to come to him. We go to Christ and obey him, and desire to live with him forever, be

cause we love him. In a happy marriage it is so the bride goes to her husband.”

"Miss Ranesford," said Mariah, looking at her with shining eyes, "you have made marriage a beautiful thing to me."

"I am glad, dear," was the moved reply.

"Once

I thought a great deal about it-my first summer in the French family. I had something to decide and everybody helped to make it clearer-words dropped by Mrs. Hooker, and Mrs. Scarlett, and Mrs. French, and Mr. French at the hour of prayer. I am not sure but that your elder in his prayer-meeting talks had something to do with it. I am glad that the seed may bear fruit for you."

"Did you decide as you wanted to? I mean are you glad now?"

'I am very glad now. It was the best choice." "Did it make you unhappy?" questioned Mariah wistfully.

"Very unhappy; if one can be unhappy and do right at the same time. But I was not brave; I broke down and might have undone my choice if-I had not been hindered."

"Did somebody hinder?"

"Yes, somebody hindered at just the right moment."

"But you are glad," persisted Mariah. never look unhappy."

"You

66

Why should I? Our times' are in safe hands."

"Did you make somebody unhappy?"

"For a while."

"That was hard."

"Lives become very closely interlinked in this world of men and women; God made it so and meant it so. Somebody must be hurt. I was not wise enough to foresee. Only God has foreknowledge."

I

"I never told John I cared for him. I don't know how I have acted; like my natural self, I suppose; usually do. It is time for me to go away."

"It will be good for you both."

"Yes, I want to stay with my mother. We have come back to each other again."

"Mariah, I will tell you" Clara's lips paled in the effort. "My reason was not simply a feeling. It was feeling, but it had a foundation in right and common sense. I did not want any one else to make me satisfied; I was too satisfied. Somebody broke his word to me; he promised faithfully to do a certain thing not that he felt the force of it, but out of regard to a whim' of my own. It was not a whim; it was that he should give up for a certain time the habit of drinking wine and beer and any of those things. I knew he thought he must have something of the kind every day, and I was afraid for him; he cared for everything of the kind. It did not shock me at first. But then I became afraid for him; he said once he was

afraid for himself.

But he could not keep his word;

the habit was too strong. He had not the truth or manliness to refrain or to keep his word.”

"Oh!" was Mariah's feeling exclamation. "I I could not love a man like that."

"I am not strong. reason is not like that.'

"No.

I need somebody strong. Your

John drinks neither tea nor coffee even. He is good, he is strong; your story makes me care more for him. If mother hadn't come home, I mightBut she wants me. I did not want to go at first; but she does love me just as much as ever and father is so good to me that I really love to call him father. a girl with a father and a mother now; and at first I felt as if I were an orphan."

A girl with a father and a mother!

thing in all the world like it?

I am

Was there any

"Miss Ranesford, I think you are strong. You were

ing. Still I knew I would be kept.”

"Then I shall be," said Mariah in her soft, sweet voice. "I shall have to grow years before I can understand or feel at home with John Wheatcroft.”

CLAR

CHAPTER XXIII

ON SHIPBOARD

Dare to look in thy chest; for 'tis thine own;

And tumble up and down what thou findest there.

-George Herbert.

YLARA RANESFORD was glad of an hour with John Wheatcroft to talk about her boy. She found the hour one Saturday afternoon on board the "Isaac Jeans."

Mrs. Waterbury gave a dinner to her friends. The first officer, Tom Mayhew, brought his mother. The other guests were Mr. and Mrs. French, Helen Knight, Clara Ranesford, and John Wheatcroft. Mariah was not a guest; she had become by loving adoption a member of the family of the "Isaac Jeans."

"Mariah is starting out to see the world," remarked Mariah's mother at the dinner table.

John Wheatcroft looked up quickly; his lips parted, but he was silent.

"It will be something for the world to see Miss Hardenbergh," replied Tom Mayhew readily.

Together on the upper deck after. dinner John Wheatcroft and Clara Ranesford walked up and down. Mariah will walk miles here," said Clara; "she will have the sight and sound and smell of the sea.