For myself, whether I marry or not, I have determined
to devote the remainder of my life to trying to do good, and to
leaving the world happier than I found it. Your father is very
well, and gave us a capital sermon last Sunday. I enclose the
bank-note which you asked me to keep for you. Good-bye, for ever,
dear Hector, and believe me when I say that, come what may, I am
ever your true friend,
"Laura S. McIntyre."
She had hardly sealed her letter before her father and Robert returned.
She closed the door behind them, and made them a little curtsey.
"I await my family's congratulations," she said, with her head in the
air. "Mr. Raffles Haw has been here, and he has asked me to be his
wife."
"The deuce he did!" cried the old man. "And you said--?"
"I am to see him again."
"And you will say--?"
"I will accept him."
"You were always a good girl, Laura," said old McIntyre, standing on his
tiptoes to kiss her.
"But Laura, Laura, how about Hector?" asked Robert in mild remonstrance.
"Oh, I have written to him," his sister answered carelessly. "I wish
you would be good enough to post the letter."
CHAPTER X.
THE GREAT SECRET.
And so Laura McIntyre became duly engaged to Raffles Haw, and old
McIntyre grew even more hungry-looking as he felt himself a step nearer
to the source of wealth, while Robert thought less of work than ever,
and never gave as much as a thought to the great canvas which still
stood, dust-covered, upon his easel.
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