ng from fate as his right, and felt himself fit to match
with the best blood in the world--except hers.

Yet she was only his social equal, and had grown up next door, while
his unsatisfied nature searched the universe for its mate--a wild
sweetbrier-rose of a child, pink and golden, breathing a daring,
fragrant personality. He hearkened back to some recognition of her charm
from the day she ran out bareheaded and slim-legged on her father's lawn
and turned on the hose for her play. Yet he barely missed her when she
went to an Eastern school, and only thrilled vaguely when she came back
like one of Gibson's pictures, carrying herself with state-liness. There
was something in her blue eyes not to be found in any other blue eyes.
He was housed with her family in the same hotel at the island before he
completely understood the magnitude of what had befallen him.

"I am awfully set up because you have chosen me," she admitted at first.
He liked to have her proud as of a conquest, and he was conscious of
that general favor which stamped him a good match, even for a girl half
his age.

"How much have you done this morning?" she inquired, looking at his
desk.

"Enough to tide over the time until you came. Determination and
execution are not one with me now." Her hands were cold, and he warmed
them against his face.

"It was during your married life that determination and execution were
one?"

"Decidedly. For that was my plodding age. Sometimes when I am tingling
with impatience here I look back in wonder on the dogged drive of those
days. Work is an unhappy man's best friend. I have no concealments from
you, Lily. You know I never loved my wife--not this way--though I made
her happy; I did my duty. She told me when she died that I had made her
happy. People cannot help their limitations."

"Do you love me?" she asked, her lips close to his ear.

"I am you! Your blood flows through my veins. I feel you rush through
me. You don't know what it is to love like that, do you?"

She shook her head.

"When you are out of my sight I do not live; I simply wait. What is the
weird power in you that creates such gigantic passion?"

"The power is all in your imagination. You simply don't know me. You
think I am a prize. Why, I--flirt--and I've--kissed men!"

He laughed. "You would be a queer girl, at your age, if you
hadn't--kissed men--a little. Whatever your terrible past has been, it
has made you the infinite darling that