to his senses. He let her hands slip from his and went around the
table and sat down opposite to her. "And so you ran away and hid?" He
smiled at her reassuringly.

"Yes. I knew I ought not to--then I heard the music and I couldn't look
or listen. I--why, where did you come from? I thought you were in the
parade with David. I felt--if you knew you would understand. I wished
that I had asked you--had told you that I couldn't go. Did you come back
for me?"

"No," answered Andrew with a prayer in his heart for words to cover facts
from the clear eyes fixed on his--clear, comforted young eyes that looked
right down to the rock bed of his soul. "You see the old boys rather
upset me, too. I have been away so long--and so many of them are missing.
I'm just a coward, too--'birds of a feather'--take me under your wing,
will you?"

"I believe one of those 'strange wild things' has been flying around in
the atmosphere and has taken possession of us again," said Caroline
Darrah slowly, never taking her eyes from his. "I don't know why I know,
but I do, that you came to comfort me. I was thinking about you and
wishing I could tell you. Now in just this minute you've made me see that
I have a right to all of you. I'm never going to be unhappy about it any
more. After this I'm going to belong as hard as ever I can."

Something crashed in every vein in Andrew Sevier's body, lilted in his
heart, beat in his throat and sparkled in his eyes. He sprang to his feet
and held out his hand to her.

"Then come on and be adopted," he said. "I shall order the electric, and