She had not known that she had hoped anything from her uncle's visit, but this final despair almost over-powered her.
"He thinks you are going to change your mind in a week or two," he went on.

"I'd say he was insane if he were not so cruel! There is too much method in his madness.

There! I cannot speak of it; let us drop the subject.

Your place in my heart is secure; I trust you will never leave me; but on this one topic we cannot meet." Then with a sudden tenderness, "Oh, Helen, how hard this is for you! You must try to forgive him,--I cannot." "Forgive him ?" she said, almost in a whisper, her beautiful eyes dilating and her lips white.

"Oh, John, how I have wronged you, if they think I have anything to forgive!" Dr.Howe looked at her, and seemed to swallow a sob; then he opened his arms, and, drawing her head down on his shoulder, "Poor child," he said, "poor child!" But this softening on his part met no response from Helen.