gaze, dazed, stupefied, open-mouthed; every thing that
denotes the gawky fool. Then I dropped fervently on my knees at her feet
and shamelessly seized her hands in mine and kissed them. She made no
effort to release them and I crushed them greedily while my tongue could
find no words, until, as I afterward learned, her rings cut into the
flesh.

"But," I stammered finally, "you are Frances Weighborne. His wife is
Frances Weighborne. Bob Maxwell told me--"

She laughed again, and Weighborne's heavy breathing became almost a
snore. After all, first impressions are best. Weighborne was a capital
fellow, one could not help liking him.

"Correct," said the lady indulgently, as though she were teaching a
small boy his primer lessons. "I am Frances Weighborne. My sister-in-law
was also christened Frances in baptism, and acquired the surname of
Weighborne in matrimony. There may, so far as I know, be various other
Frances Weighbornes. We have never copyrighted the name."

"Oh, my God!" I groaned helplessly. "What an unspeakable imbecile I've
been--but you're wrong, dearest, you _are_ the only one."

"Do you think it necessary to swear about it?" she inquired. "And are
you now quite certain that I'm the right one?"

"There isn't any time to swear," I assured her, "there is so infinitely
much to say--but not here. Come out under the stars, where one can
breathe. Give me five minutes. Unless I speak now I shall die of
suppressed emotion. All my life I've been a supposedly extinct volcano.
I'm no longer extinct." I halted my rush of words; then added, "Yes,
you're the right one." I rose and, still holding her hands, lifted her
to her feet. At the door, with my hand on the latch, I paused.

"No," I exclaimed, hardly realizing that I was speaking aloud. "You open
it. In the dream it is always you who open the door into the other
world."

She wheeled and looked me in the eyes, her own pupils wide and
incredulous.

"Do you have it, too?" she demanded breathlessly. "Do you dream my
dream? Do I come to you in some vague danger and lead you through a
door?"

She laid her hand on the bolt, just as I had so often seen her do in my
vision, and we stepped together out into the glory of the frost and
moon.

"As you are doing now," I answered; then with a new wonder I demanded,
"But tell me, how in Heaven's name could you dream of me before you knew
me?"

She laughed mockingly.

"Perhaps," she vouchsafed, "if you make yoursel