up into my
face.

"I did know it," she said. "He told me, there in Paris. And I told
him--"

"You told him--?"

"I told him that I liked him; I do, I do; he is a good man. But I told
him--" she rose on tiptoe and kissed me--"I told him that I loved you,
dear. See! here is the pin you gave me. It is the one thing I could
not leave behind when I ran away from Mayberry. I meant to keep that
always--and I always shall."

After a time we remembered Hephzy. It would be more truthful to say that
Frances remembered her. I had forgotten Hephzy altogether, I am ashamed
to say.

"Kent," she said; "don't you think we should tell Auntie now? She will
be pleased, I hope."

"Pleased! She will be--I can't think of a word to describe it. She loves
you, too, dear."

"I know. I hope she will love me more now. She worships you, Kent."

"I am afraid she does. She doesn't realize what a tinsel god I am. And
I fear you don't either. I am not a great man. I am not even a famous
author. I--Are you SURE, Frances?"

She laughed lightly. "Kent," she whispered, "what was it Doctor Bayliss
called you when you offered to promise not to follow me to Leatherhead?"

I had told her the whole story of my last interview with Bayliss at the
Continental.

"He called me a silly ass," I answered promptly. "I don't care."

"Neither do I; but don't you think you are one, just a little bit of
one, in some things? You mustn't ask me if I am sure again. Come! we
will go to Auntie."

Hephzy had finished unpacking my trunk and was standing by the closet
door, shaking the wrinkles out of my dinner coat. She heard us enter and
turned.

"I never saw clothes in such a mess in my life," she announced. "And I
packed this trunk, too. I guess the trembles in my head must have got
into my fingers when I did it. I--"

She stopped at the beginning of the sentence. I had taken Frances by the
hand and led her up to where she was standing. Hephzy said nothing, she
stood there and stared at us, but the coat fell to the floor.

"Hephzy," said I, "I've come to make an apology. I believe in dreams
and presentiments and Spiritualism and all the rest of it now. You were
right. Our pilgrimage has ended just as you declared it would. I know
now that we were 'sent' upon it. Frances has said--"

Hephzy didn't wait to hear any more. She threw her arms about
Frances' neck, then about mine, hugged us both, and then, to my utter
astonishment, sat down upon the closed tru