difference. It's not that I want you to explain--I mean
about that particular evening. It's only that I want you to
have the whole of my feeling. I didn't know what it was
till I saw you again. I never dreamed I should say such
things to you!"

"I never dreamed I should be here to hear you say them!" He
turned back and lifting a floating end of her scarf put his
lips to it. "But now that you have, I know--I know," he
smiled down at her.

"You know?"

"That this is no light thing between us. Now you may ask me
anything you please! That was all I wanted to ask YOU."

For a long moment they looked at each other without
speaking. She saw the dancing spirit in his eyes turn grave
and darken to a passionate sternness. He stooped and kissed
her, and she sat as if folded in wings.



XII


It was in the natural order of things that, on the way back
to the house, their talk should have turned to the future.

Anna was not eager to define it. She had an extraordinary