es looked beyond Avery
and smiled a welcome to Piers. He came to her, knelt beside her.

"Dear Sir Galahad!" she said.

He shook his head. "No, Jeanie, no!"

She was panting. He slipped his arm under the pillow to support her. She
turned her face to his.

"Oh, Piers," she breathed, "I do--so--want you--to be happy."

"I am happy, sweetheart," he said.

But Jeanie's vision was stronger in that moment than it had ever been
before, and she was not deceived. "You are not happy, dear Piers," she
said. "Avery is not happy either."

Piers turned slightly. "Come here, Avery!" he said.

The old imperious note was in his voice, yet with a difference. He
stretched his free hand up to her, drawing her down to his side, and as
she knelt also he passed his arm about her, pressing her to him.

Jeanie's eyes were upon them both, dying eyes that shone with a mystic
glory. They saw the steadfast resolution in Piers' face as he held his
wife against his heart. They saw the quivering hesitation with which
she yielded.

"You're not happy--yet," she whispered. "But you will be happy."

Thereafter she seemed to slip away from them for a space, losing touch as
it were, yet still not beyond their reach. Once or twice she seemed to be
trying to pray, but they could not catch her words.

The dawn-light grew stronger before the window. The sound of the waves
had sunk to a low murmuring. From where she knelt Avery could see the
far, dim line of sea. Piers' arm was still about her. She felt as though
they two were kneeling apart before an Altar invisible, waiting to receive
a blessing.

Jeanie's breathing was growing less hurried. She seemed already beyond
all earthly suffering. Yet her eyes also watched that far dim sky-line as
though they waited for a sign.

Slowly the light deepened, the shadows began to lift. Piers' eyes were
fixed unswervingly upon the child's quiet face. The light of the coming
Dawn was reflected there. The great Change was very near at hand.

Far away to the left there grew and spread a wondrous brightness. The sky
seemed to recede, turned from grey to misty blue. A veil of cloud that
had hidden the stars all through the night dissolved softly into shreds
of gold, and across the sea with a diamond splendour there shot the first
great ray of sunlight.

It was then that Jeanie seemed to awake, to rise as it were from the
depths of reverie. Her eyes widened, grew intense; then suddenly
they smiled.

She sou