CHAPTER X


Alexandra Strickland, coming down the stairway of the valley house
on an April evening, glanced curiously at the door. Her eyes moved
to the old clock, and a smile tugged involuntarily at the corners
of her mouth. Only eight o'clock, but the day had been so long and
so quiet that she had fancied that the hour was much later, and
had wondered who knocked so late.

She crossed to the door and opened it to darkness and rain, and to
a man in a raincoat, who whipped off a spattered cap and stood
smiling in the light of the lamp she held. Instantly, with a sort
of gasp of surprise and pleasure and some deeper emotion, she set
down the lamp, and held out her hands gropingly and went into his
arms. He laughed joyously as he kissed her, and for a minute they
clung together.

"Peter!" she said. "You angel--when did you arrive and what are
you doing, and tell me all about it!"

"But, Alix--you're thin!" Peter said, holding her at arm's length.
"And--and--" He gently touched the black she wore, and fixed
puzzled and troubled eyes upon her face. "Alix--" he asked,
apprehensively.

For answer she tried to smile at him, but her lips trembled and
her eyes brimmed. She had led the way into the old sitting room