And then he paused there beside her. Oh! she Was seven million times
lovelier close to than far away. All the rot about Venus and statues and
paintings and Helen of Troy was nowhere beside Her and he felt his
strength come surging mightily upward and then—oh Heavens!

She looked up—looked so sweetly up—right into his eyes and smiled.

"I expect you are to take me into dinner," she said; and at her words the
man who had been talking to her murmured something meaningless and got out
of their way.

"I believe so," he said.

She rose and he noticed that the top of her head was just level with his
coat lapel. He wondered, with a miserable pang, where she came to on her
husband’s coat and with the wonder his surging strength surged suddenly
out to sea again and left him feeling like Samson when he awoke to the
realization of his haircut.

"Dinner’s very late," she said, quite as if life presented no problem
whatever; "you see, it’s the first big company in the house. We were only
seventeen last night, and to-night we’re forty-five. It makes a
difference."

"I can imagine so," he said. He was suddenly acutely aware of feeling very
awkward, and of finding her different—quite different from what she had
seemed up in her brother’s room.

"What is it?" she asked after a minute, looking up at him; and then she
showed that she was conscious of the change, for she added: "Something has