in the same imperturbable manner, "that if I
had not interrupted you, the policeman would
have h*eard you, and you would have been
arrested for street disturbance. Then to-morrow
we should have seen it in all the newspapers,
and I should have been the laughing-stock of
the whole town."

No, surely he had never thought of it in
that light; the idea struck him as entirely new.
There was a long pause. A cock crowed with
a drowsy remoteness in some neighboring yard,
and the little clock on the mantel-piece ticked
on patiently in the moonlit dusk.

"If you have nothing to say," resumed Edith,
while the stern indifference in her voice
perceptibly relaxed, "then I will bid you good-
night."

She arose, and with a grand sweep of her
drapery, moved toward the door.

"Miss Edith," cried he, stretching his hands
despairingly after her, "you must not leave me."

She paused, tossed her hair back with her
hands, and gazed at him over her shoulder. He
threw himself on his knees, seized the hem of
her dress, and pressed it to his lips. It was a