"Dolly, dear, beautiful Dolly!" he said, but the whispered words
dropped lifeless from his lips. "I have broken promises, but I shall
keep those made to you. You are my turning-point. You are to be my
wife. I have fancied myself in love often before and been mistaken,
but the man does not live who could be untrue to a girl like you. You
have made a man of me. I will be true--I will be honest with you. I
swear it! I swear it!"





CHAPTER XV




A little later he and his sister were at luncheon in her dining-room.

"I am losing patience with you, Dick," she said, as she poured his
tea.

"Is that anything new?" he ventured to jest, while wondering what
might lay in the little woman's mind.

"You are too strenuous," she smiled, as she dropped two lumps of sugar
into his cup. "Entirely too much so. I saw from your face this morning
that you are already undoing the effects of your vacation. The old
glare is back in your eyes; your hands shake. I really must warn you.
You know our father died from softening of the brain, which was