"I hope if what I told you Mrs. Haddon said was an inspiration, it was a good one. I felt that I must tell you, Mr. Courtland, though I fear that I gave you some pain--great pain. I know what it is to be reminded of an irreparable loss."

"Pain--pain?" said he. Then he raised his eyes to hers. "I wonder if you will ever know what effect your words had upon me, Miss Ayrton?" he added. "I don't suppose that you will ever know; but I tell you that it would be impossible for me ever to cease to think of you as my good angel."

She flushed slightly, very slightly, before saying:

"How odd that Ella should call me her good angel, too, on that same night!"

"And she spoke the truth, if ever truth was spoken," he cried.

Her face was very serious as she said:

"Of course I don't understand anything of this, Mr. Courtland."

"No," he said; "it would be impossible for you to understand anything of it. It would be impossible for you to understand how I feel toward you--how I have felt toward you since you spoke those words in this room; those words that came to me as the light from heaven came to Saul of Tarsus; words of salvation. Believe me, I shall never forget them."