he had never seen there, and her hands extended in glad welcome.

"You, Lina! You here? You have relented? This is too much happiness!"

Catching both soft white hands in his, he bent his lips to them, full of
the rapture he could not speak. He forgot to wonder why she was there.
He forgot everything but the love in her eyes and the joyous ring of her
voice.

Ere they could be seated the door again opened and admitted an elderly
lady, who approached smiling.

"My dear aunt!" exclaimed the young lover. "You, too? This _is_ a
surprise! What does it all mean? How did you get here, and when?"

The ladies stood smiling at each other and gazing upon him with a
significance that indeed clamored for explanation.

"Weldon, is it possible you do not guess?" asked his aunt.

"What? Why, what do you mean? I am all bewildered!" he exclaimed,
looking from one to the other till a faint glimmer of the truth began
to appear through the mists.

"Stupid boy!" again emphasized the lady, "whom did you come here to
see?"

Quickly glancing at the beautiful, radiant, still-smiling face of the
young girl, and then at the impressive features of the elder lady,
Weldon Gardner, with bated breath and a dazed expression in his startled