or the touch of her hand so pleasantly unnerving. And now, in
place of asking for her name and the reason for her visit, he
became an irrational idiot, explaining to her certain matters of
physiology that had to do with aortas and aneurismal sacs. He had
finished before the absurdity of the situation dawned upon him,
and with absurdity came the humor of it. Even dying, Kent could
not fail to see the funny side of a thing It struck him as
suddenly as had the girl's beauty and her bewildering and
unaffected ingenuousness.

Looking at him, that same glow of mysterious questioning in her
eyes, the girl found him suddenly laughing straight into her face.

"This is funny. It's very funny, Miss--Miss--"

"Marette," she supplied, answering his hesitation.

"It's funny, Miss Marette."

"Not Miss Marette. Just Marette," she corrected.

"I say, it's funny," he tried again. "You see, it's not so
terribly pleasant as you might think to--er--be here, where I am,
dying. And last night I thought about the finest thing in the
world would be to have a woman beside me, a woman who'd be sort of
sympathetic, you know, ease the thing off a little, maybe say she
was sorry. And then the Lord answers my prayer, and YOU come--and
you sort of give me the impression that you made the appointment
with yourself to see how a fellow looks when he pops off."