n.

Suddenly terror smote Julia; she flung her book aside and sat up erect
in bed. Her heart was thundering with fear; the silence of the house was
like that that follows an explosion.

For a few dreadful seconds she sat motionless; then she thrust her bare
feet in the slippers of warm white fox that Ellie had put out, and
caught up a Japanese robe of black crepe, in which her figure was quite
lost. Fastening the wide obi with trembling fingers, she slipped out
into the hall, dimly lighted and very still. Then she ran quickly
downstairs.

What sight of horror she expected to find in the library she did not
know, but the shock of revulsion, when the opened door showed her
nothing more terrible than Jim, musing in the firelight, was almost as
bad as a fright could have been.

"Oh, Jim!" she panted, coming in, one hand pressed against her heart, "I
thought something--I got frightened!"

Jim looked up with his old, tender, whimsical smile, the smile for which
she had hungered so long, and held out a reassuring hand.

"Why, no, you poor kid!" he said. "I've been sitting right here!"

"I thought--and it was so still--and you didn't come up!" Julia said,
beginning to sob. And in a moment she was in his arms, clinging to him
in an ecstasy of love and relief. For a long blissful time they remained
so, the soft curve of Julia's cheek against Jim's face, her heart
beating quick above his own, her warm little figure, in its loose, soft
robe, gathered closely to him.

"Feeling better now, old lady?"

"Oh, fine!" But Julia's face quivered with tears again at the tone.

"Well, then, what's this for?" He showed her a drop on the back of his
hand.

"Be--because I love you so, Jim!"

"Well, you needn't cry over it!" said Jim gently. "I'm the one that
ought to do the crying, Judy," he added, with a significant glance at
her lovely flushed face and tear-bright blue eyes.

Julia leaned against him with a long, happy sigh.

"Oh, I'm so glad I came down!" she breathed contentedly.

"'Glad!'" Jim echoed soberly. "God! You don't know what it meant to me
to look up and see my little Geisha coming in. I was going crazy, I
think!"

"Ah, Jimmy, why do you?" she coaxed, one slender arm about his neck.

"I don't know," he said thoughtfully. "Made that way, I guess!"

For a while they were silent again, then Julia said softly:

"After all, nothing matters as long as we love each other!"

"No, no! You're right, Julie," he agree