same tragic appeal that she had felt that afternoon in his kiss.
Trembling, she threw herself down beside him, clasping him to her.

"O Vincent! oh, my dear!" she whispered, and began to cry. He did not ask
her why she was crying; she wished that he would; his silence admitted
that he knew of some adequate reason.

"I feel that there is something wrong," she sobbed, "something
terribly wrong."

"Nothing could go wrong between you and me, my darling," he answered. His
tone comforted, his touch was a comfort. Perhaps she was a coward, she
said to herself, but she questioned him no further.




CHAPTER IV


Wayne was not so prompt as Mathilde in making the announcement of their
engagement. He and his mother breakfasted together rather hastily, for
she was going to court that morning to testify in favor of one of her
backsliding inebriates, and Wayne had not found the moment to introduce
his own affairs.

That afternoon he came home earlier than usual; it was not five o'clock.
He passed Dr. Parret's flat on the first floor--Dr. Lily MacComb Parret.
She was a great friend of his, and he felt a decided temptation to go in
and tell her the news first; but reflecting that no one ought to hear it