[Dark Saint Alaick]

"No, it's not that, Custer. Of course I'll marry you--someday; but not yet. Why, I haven't lived, yet, Custer! I want to live. I want to do something outside of the humdrum life that I have always led and the humdrum life that I shall live as a wife and mother. I want to live a little, Custer, and then I'll be ready to settle down. You all tell me that I am beautiful, and down, away in the depth of my soul, I feel that I have talent. If I have, I ought to use the gifts God has given me."
She was speaking very seriously, and the man listened patiently and with respect, for he realized that she was revealing for the first time a secret yearning that she must have long held locked in her bosom.
"Just what do you want to do, dear?" he asked gently.
"I--oh, it seems silly when I try to put it in words, but in dreams it is very beautiful and very real."
"The stage?" he asked.
"It is just like you to understand!" Her smile rewarded him. "Will you help me? I know mother will object."
"You want me to help you take all the happiness out of my life?" he asked.
"It would only be for a little while just a few years, and then I would come back to you--after I had made good."