He drew her upon his knee and kissed her. Then he held her from him, so he could watch her face, and said, "Bessie, how would you like to leave Apsleigh?" "Leave Apsleigh! Why, Mark, what do you mean?" "Just what I say, dear. How would you like to leave Apsleigh?”

"What is the trouble, darling?" she said, kissing him again. "It must be something dreadful. Have you lost your money?"

"No; it is n't money. There's going to be a liquor war." He told her all about it. "I've had a great deal to enjoy and look forward to in Apsleigh," he said, "but when this is over I shall have nothing. I shall be ruined politically and professionally, half my old friends will be enemies, and as to staying here, I'd rather be in my grave." "Could n't you resign?" "On the eve of battle?"

"O Mark, I'd rather see you dead than dishonored! But it won't be as bad as you think.

so very much about politics, do you?

You don't care
And if it hurts

your business-you say Wilcox makes more money selling mortgages and things than you do practising law: you might do something of that sort."

"Throw up the finest profession in the world and turn mortgage-broker! No, Bessie; we 'll go West and start again."

"I'll go, Mark, when the time comes, but it won't come. You have n't brought it about; you 're only where the law puts you; and they 'll think all the more of you for doing your duty." Then she added, with a woman's inconsequence: "They won't do any

thing dreadful,-burn the house or try to kill you,— will they?"

"I wish they would!"

"O Mark!"

"The house is insured, and I'd as soon they 'd kill me as not. 'T would n't be half as bad as what 's before me. I believe in prohibition where it's possible -if it ever is. I'd be willing to die to make it win, and killing me would raise a storm of public indignation that would make it win. There's no hope of anything of that kind. If there are Harpswells in Denman 's camp, he 'll make 'em curl like whipped hounds."

"Mark, what makes you so bitter against Harpswell? He means well."

"I know it."

"And Denman does n't. He's a bad man."

"No, Bessie; he is n't a bad man. He's a giant on the wrong side."

"What's the difference, Mark?" "All the difference in the world. There never was a worse cause than the slaveholders' rebellion, and the men who fought for it were just like those on our side. Their greatest general was the finest kind of a man. Denman's got more good in him than fifty common men, though he won't scruple at anything to win this fight. I could bear defeat from him, but to be ruined. by a fool in our own camp-it's unbearable!"

"If you should want to go, Mark, I'll gladly go anywhere in the world with you, anywhere you think best. There's no place I can't be happy in with you and our boy."

"I know it, Bessie, and it is n't so much ourselves I care about-though I do want to keep this house for our boy, because it was his great-grandfather's-I don't care as much about ourselves as I do about the party."

"Why, Mark!"

"We have n't any votes to spare. I'm afraid it 'll give the State to the Democrats."

"Suppose it does, Mark? What of it?"

"Bessie!"

"I know you 're the best husband that ever was, and I know how you love us both; but it hurts me, Mark-it seems awful to hear you say you care more for the party than for yourself and me and our little boy. I can't understand how any one can feel that way."

"Bessie, you 're a Christian if there ever was one." "I try to be a Christian, Mark. Why?"

"And you believe in the church of Christ?"

"More than in anything else; more even than in you, darling."

"Bessie, I believe in the Republican party as you believe in the church; it's my religion."

"O Mark! I know you don't mean anything of the kind; but that seems almost like sacrilege to me."

"It is n't sacrilege, Bessie; it is my faith, like your faith in the Christian church. I believe in God; I believe he has chosen our country to be the Moses of the nations, and there's only one party in it fit for a divine mission. It's through that party that government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the earth. It's the hope of the future

for this nation and for all nations. I believe the Republican party is God's instrument. More than any other, I believe, it is founded on Christ's teachings.”

"You must n't blame me, Mark, if I can't see anything divine in politics,-I 'm only a woman,-but, darling, if the Republican party has God's purpose to work out, you won't defeat it by doing what the law makes it your duty to do, even if it does look as if it might give the next election to the Democrats."

ΧΙ

A BET

SABEL went abroad the November following Craigin's arrival in Apsleigh. During her absence he wrote to her occasionally, and received replies at irregular intervals,

written in her frank, unconventional way. In one of her letters she said: "I have met Mr. Gladstone, and have dined with the Prince of Wales. I mention these events in the order of their importance." At another time she wrote: "I have had a great honor for an American girl and a plebeian-a chance to marry an echo of bygone centuries. Hundreds of years ago a knight with a few companions held a narrow pass against a mighty host until the king and his army came, and the kingdom was saved from invasion. Then he sank to the ground covered with wounds, and as his life-blood ebbed away the king laid his sword upon him and made him a count. And his descendant, the present count, can waltz like a dancing-master, and play the fiddle; and he-this dancing, fiddling carpet-noble-told me of his great ancestor to induce me to marry him. What do you think I told him? I told him if he would take me to the cathedral where