a music waking in his heart,
his pulses thronged with a new beauty.

"Remember it?" Myra whispered. "Yes, Joe, I remember it."

"That is the very bench we sat on."

"That is the bench."

"And that is the little pond."

"That is the little pond."

"And this is the spot."

"This is the spot."

They sat down on that bench in the crystal wilderness, a man and woman
alone in the blue-skied spaces, among the tree-trunks, and the circle of
earth. And then to Myra came an inexpressible moment of agony and
longing and love. She had struggled months; she had stayed away; and
then she had come back, and merged her life in the life of this man. And
she could bear this no longer! Oh, Joe, will you never speak? Will you
never come to your senses?

More and more color was rising to his face, and his hands in his lap
were trembling. He tried to speak naturally--but his voice was odd and
unreal.

"Myra."

"Yes," tremulously.

"You must have thought me a brute."

"I thought--you were busy, overworked."

"So I was. I was swallowed up--swallowed up."

There was a silence, in which they heard little gray sparrows twittering
in the sunlight.

"Myra."

He hardly heard her "yes."

"There's been a miracle in my life this year."

"Yes?"

"The way you came down and took hold and made good."

"Thank you," very faintly.

"It was the biggest thing that came my way."

Silence.

"I was noticing it, Myra, out of the tail of my eye."

Myra tried to laugh. It sounded more like a dull sob.

"I haven't time to be polite."

"Don't want you to," Myra blurted.

"Strange," said Joe, "how things come about. Hello, Mr. Squirrel! Want a
peanut? None on the premises. Sorry. Good-day!"

He leaned over, picked a bit of ice, and flung it in the air.

"Myra," he muttered. "I need a rest."

"You do," almost inaudible.

"I need--Didn't I say, no peanuts? No means no! Good-day!"

He turned about laughing.

"What do you think of that for a pesky little animal?"

"Joe!" she cried in her agony.

Joe said nothing, but stared, and a great sob shook him and escaped his
lips.

"Myra!!"

He had her in his arms; he kissed her on the lips--that new kiss,
sealing those others. And the wonderful moment came and went; the moment
when two flames leap into one fire; when two lives dashing upon each
other blend into one wonderful torrent. They did not mind the publicity
of the place that afternoon; they were quite oblivious of the