rbour in his
hydro-aeroplane. But the noise had ceased, and the darkness was gone.
All was light and peace. She was conscious that she had struggled and
suffered, that she had borne a burden of unhappiness which had been too
heavy for her shoulders. The burden had fallen off. She was no longer
unhappy, and though her heart was empty of joy, dimly she seemed to hear
an assurance that soon it would be filled to overflowing. The promise
was in the music that was part of the light, and of the great sea over
which she was passed. She knew that she was far above it now, and rising
higher, as she had risen in the aeroplane when she had felt the wonder
after the shrinking. But something which had been herself lay under the
sea, down in the storm and the darkness she had left behind.

Then, suddenly, the music was disturbed. Through it she listened to a
vague undertone of sorrow; and she became aware that some one was
suffering as she had suffered, some one whom she had loved--some one
whom she would always love. Out of the darkness a voice was calling her
to come back. Indistinct and far away at first, it became clear,
insistent, irresistible.

* * * * * * *

A faint shiver ran through Mary's body, and Vanno's heart leaped against
her breast, as if he sent his life to warm her heart.

"Come back to me, if you loved me!" he called her.

Very slowly she opened her eyes, dazzled still with the light she had
seen through the open door.

"Mary, come back and save me!" he cried to her out of the darkness.

"I am coming," she whispered, not sure if she was answering in a dream
to a voice in a dream. But the light of the wondrous sea was dimmed to
the light of an earthly sunset. Through it Vanno's eyes called to her as
his voice had called--those eyes which had been her stars of love--and
she forgot the brighter light, just seen and lost.

"You!" she said. "It's like--heaven----"

"It is heaven--now," he answered, as he held her closely.

* * * * * * *

When Mary was well again, the cure married her to her Prince, and the
two went together into the desert that Vanno loved. There it did not
matter to them that Angelo was thinking coldly and harshly of them
both; and perhaps there was even an added sweetness in Mary's happiness
because a sacrifice of hers could spare pain to one very near to Vanno.
She would not let her husband