ight before turning in her direction. She would have
known that alert turn of the head in any crowd, and now, as his
footsteps sounded nearer and nearer, along the narrow board walk that
skirted the fences, she unlatched the gate and came out to meet him.
When almost upon her, his eyes caught first the white strip of apron
beneath her dark cape, and then the dim little face above bending
forward for a greeting.

"Well," he said, in a low tone, "did you think I was never coming,
girlie?"

She leaned against him with a contented sigh. "You have come, Tom, and
that's all I care about."

As he pressed her to him, the kitten, which had lain concealed till now
in purring contentment beneath her cape, leaped to the ground and
disappeared in the darkness.

"How I hate a cat!" he exclaimed, startled. "I 'd like to set my dog
on the beast." His irritation merely elicited a little ripple of
amusement, for though she was submissive to his will, she was never
afraid of his censure. "Come," he continued; "this is no place to
stand. We will go into that new building across the way."

He took her hand and guided her between scattered blocks of stone, over
a shaking plank, and into the darkness she never would have ventured to
enter alone. The large room in which they found themselves was already
floored. The smell of fresh plaster, which was perceptible even from
without, was here intensified, and he sniffed it with relish, for such
works of construction always appealed to his nature. An open window,
facing the street, admitted a misty illumination from the electric
light beyond, and disclosed in one corner a heap of boards.

"Now," he said eagerly, taking her almost roughly by the shoulders and
turning her about, "give me a kiss."

All the graciousness and charm were with her, all the strength with
him. He was an abrupt and dictatorial lover, but she was a born
sweetheart. At the moment when her arms were twined about him she most
perfectly expressed herself. He drank in her kisses thirstily; then
grasped her wrists firmly and removed them from his neck, as if he
realised a peculiar responsibility.

"There, Lena," he protested, "that will do." But he still continued to
hold her wrists. "Just like a couple of pipestems," he remarked. "How
easily I could break them!"

She accepted the comment as a tribute to her delicacy, a proof of his
strength. It was this strength that drew her, so that she swayed
toward h