ll.

"The brambled cares of everyday,
The tiny humdrum things,
May bind my feet when they would stray,
But still my heart has wings,
While red geraniums are bloomed against my window-glass,
And low above my green-sweet hill the gypsy wind-clouds pass.

"And if my dreamings ne'er come true,
The brightest and the best,
But leave me lone my journey through,
I'll set my heart at rest,
And thank Thee, God, for home-sweet things, a green and friendly
hill,
And red geraniums aflame upon my window-sill."

He gazed into the empty fireplace as the words of the verse sang
through his mind.

"But still my heart has wings," "Gypsy wind-clouds," "And if my
dreamings ne'er come true ... I'll set my heart at rest."

He mused over them. His heart had wings to soar high with his soul in
the ecstasy of his new-found love. And if his dreaming never came true,
could he set his heart at rest?

Or, her dreams, her expectation of happiness with Gibson--when they were
shattered, could she set her heart at rest and thank her God for
"home-sweet things," her "green and friendly hill, and red geraniums
aflame upon her window-sill"?

He looked up from the ashes of the fireplace, where flames had sparkled
to cheer and comfort her. She was still looking out toward her "green
and friendly" hill and the listlessness of her outline told him that
she, too, was musing. He longed to know her thoughts.

Very slowly she turned her face toward him. There was a suggestion of
somberness in her eyes as she looked down at him.

"I arranged this window just for that," she said.

"Why did you know I would choose it as the part of the room I liked
best?" he asked.

"Because I've found we both love the simple things, the 'home-sweet'
things, the enduring things of life," she answered.

"Is that why you have been so kind to me?"

"Please don't think of it as kindness," she said. She was back in the
chair she had left to stand beside the window. "That is why I have
arranged to see you as often as I have, if that is what you mean."

An impulse overwhelmed his self-imposed restraint.

"If anything ever happens to cause you to have doubt in me," he said,
earnestly, "will you try to believe that I did what I thought was
right?"

The nature of his question, its suddenness, astonished her. She moved
her lips to speak.

"Don't ask me why I asked you that," he said, "bu