He didn't intend to let sleep rob him of the first sight of a day
that was to mean so much to him, and he went over to the open
window, caught the scent of lilac and listened, with all his
imagination and sense of beauty stirred, to the deep breathing of
the night. . ..Yes, he had cut through the bars which had kept this
girl from taking her place among the crowd. He was responsible for
the fact that she was about to play her part in the comedy of life.
He was glad to be responsible. He had passionately desired a cause
to which to attach hirmelf; and was there, in all the world, a
better than Joan?

Spring had come again, and all things were young, and the call to
mate rang in his ears and set his heart beating and his thoughts
racing ahead. He loved her, this girl that he had come upon standing
out in all her freshness against a blue sky. He would serve her as
the great lovers had served, and please God, she would some day
return his love. They would build up a home and bring up a family
and go together up the inevitable hill.

And as he stood sentinel, in a waking dream, waiting for the finger
of dawn to rub the night away, sleep tapped him on the shoulder, and
he turned and went to the divan and sat down with his back to it,
touched one of Joan's placid hands with his lips and drifted into
further dreams with a smile around his mouth.




V