form her happy eyes. She paused a moment, looking up at the wooded
hill-top, which the sun was jewelling in silver.

"Do you see something beautiful up there?"

With an inarticulate cry she wheeled around and faced Dr. Kemp within a
hand's breadth of her.

"Oh," she cried, stepping back with burning cheeks, "I did not mean--I did
not expect--"

"Nor did I," he said in a low voice; "chance is kinder to us than
ourselves--beloved."

She turned quite white at the low, intense word.

"You understood me last night--and I was not--deceived?"

Her head drooped lower till the broad brim of her hat hid her face.

With one quick step he reached her side.

"Ruth, look at me."

She never had been able to resist his compelling voice; and now with a
swift-drawn breath she threw back her head and looked up at him fairly,
with all her soul in her eyes.

"Are you satisfied?" she asked tremulously.