ut
understanding it--a hurt and piteous look.

He watched her thus till a sense of trespass came upon him, and then he
rose, bent over her, and very tenderly lifted her.

She was alert on the instant, with a sharp movement of resistance. Then
at once her arms went round his neck. "Oh, darling, is it you? Don't
bother to carry me! You're so tired!"

He smiled at the idea, and she nestled against his heart, lifting soft
lips to his.

He carried her to bed, and laid her down, but she would not let him go
immediately. She yet clung about his neck, hiding her face against it.

He held her closely. "Good-night, little pal--little sweetheart," he
said.

Her arms tightened. "Billikins!" she said.

He waited. "What is it, dear?"

She became a little agitated. He could feel her lips moving, but they
said no audible word.

He waited in silence. And suddenly she raised her face and looked at him
fully. There was a glory in her eyes such as he had never seen before.

"I dreamt last night that the wonderfullest thing happened," she said,
her red lips quivering close to his own. "Billikins, what if--the dream
came true?"

A hot wave of feeling went through him at her words. He crushed her to
him, feeling the quick beat of her heart against his own, the throbbing
surrender of her whole being to his. He kissed her burningly, with such
a passion of devotion as had never before moved him.

She laughed rapturously. "Isn't it great, Billikins?" she said. "And I'd
have missed it all if it hadn't been for you. Just think--if I hadn't
jumped--before the safety-curtain--came--down!"

She was speaking between his kisses, and eventually they stopped her.

"Don't think," he said; "don't think!"

It was the beginning of a new era, the entrance of a new element into
their lives. Perhaps till that night he had never looked upon her wholly
in the light of wife. His blind passion for her had intoxicated him.
She had been to him an elf from fairyland, a being elusive who offered
him all the magic of her love, but upon whom he had no claims. But from
that night his attitude towards her underwent a change. Very tenderly he
took her into his own close keeping. She had become human in his eyes,
no longer a wayward sprite, but a woman, eager-hearted, and his own. He
gave her reverence because of that womanhood which he had only just
begun to visualize in her. Out of his passion there had kindled a
greater fire. All that she had in life she