The Spirit of Joy stood quietly smiling by the bed.

The girl's loose hair flowed like black silk over the pillow; his head
was resting there.

They held each other's hands and looked deep into each other's eyes.
The Spirit of Joy had stood there long, but had not heard them speak a
word--only seen them lying there in silence, smiling tenderly to each
other.

The sun rose slowly over the ridge of hills, but once clear of the
summit, its rays shot suddenly down across the intervening landscape,
in through the window.

The girl looked up; the sun was laughing full in her eyes.

She sat up in bed, as if waking from a deep sleep; all things seemed
strange and unexpected.

"Has the sun eyes too, I wonder?... Has it been watching me all these
mornings?"...

* * * * *

After a little while she raised her head, and looked up shyly once
more.

The sun was watching her with a great questioning glance--as a mother
looks when she does not speak, but questions with her eyes alone.

The girl felt a shock, as if the blood had ceased to flow in her
veins; she cast down her eyes, and looked up no more. Two great pearly
tears quivered on her lashes.

"What is it?" asked her lover in dismay, half rising in his turn.
"What is it, Pansy?" He pressed her tenderly to him. "Why are your
eyes cast down?"

The teardrops trembled a moment and fell; the girl turned, and hid her
face in the pillow.

"Pansy, oh, my love!" he whispered, filled with a burning desire to
comfort her.

The girl's bare shoulders quivered, and her breast heaved with
suppressed sobs.

It was like a cold iron through his soul--as if he had been soaring
in the bluest heights, to fall now, broken-winged, among sharp rocks,
hearing sounds of misery on every side.

Heavily he threw himself down beside her, and hid his face in her dark
hair.

Two children of men, with shoulders heaving and faces wet with
tears.... The room seemed full of their sighing.

The sun turned away and hid his darkened face.

"It is sorrow," whispered the fuchsia, and a red tear fell on the
window-sill below.

* * * * *

And yet, beneath the veil of sorrow showed a warm red glow--the great
secret that was between them. It was as if their eyes were opened, and
they saw each other truly for the first time--no longer a youth and
a maiden, but two human creatures thrilled with sorrow and joy in the
pale dawn.

"C