"But, Marion!" she cried, "I do, oh, I do!"


There was a thick yellow fog the next morning, and with it rain
and a sticky, depressing dampness which crept through the window-
panes, and which neither a fire nor blazing gas-jets could
overcome.

Philip stood in front of the fireplace with the morning papers
piled high on the centre-table and scattered over the room about
him.

He had read them all, and he knew now what it was to wake up
famous, but he could not taste it. Now that it had come it meant
nothing, and that it was so complete a triumph only made it the
harder. In his most optimistic dreams he had never imagined
success so satisfying as the reality had proved to be; but in
his dreams Helen had always held the chief part, and without her,
success seemed only to mock him.

He wanted to lay it all before her, to say, "If you are pleased,
I am happy. If you are satisfied, then I am content. It was
done for you, and I am wholly yours, and all that I do is yours."

And, as though in answer to his thoughts, there was an instant
knock at the door, and Helen entered the room and stood smiling
at him across the table.

Her eyes were lit with excitement, and spoke with many emotions,