They had come to the top of the hill by now, and went on across the
open, breezy downs, all starred with blue iris and wild heliotrope.
Blix drew his arm about her waist, and laid her cheek upon his shoulder
with a little caressing motion.

"And I do love you, dear," she said--"love you with all my heart. And
it's for always, too; I know that. I've been a girl until within the
last three or four days--just a girl, dearest; not very serious, I'm
afraid, and not caring for anything else beyond, what was happening
close around me--don't you understand? But since I've found out how
much I loved you and knew that you loved me--why, everything is changed
for me. I'm not the same, I enjoy things that I never thought of
enjoying before, and I feel so--oh, LARGER, don't you know?--and
stronger, and so much more serious. Just a little while ago I was only
nineteen, but I think, dear, that by loving you I have become--all of a
sudden and without knowing it--a woman."

A little trembling ran through her with the words. She stopped and put
both arms around his neck, her head tipped back, her eyes half closed,
her sweet yellow hair rolling from her forehead. Her whole dear being
radiated with that sweet, clean perfume that seemed to come alike from
her clothes, her neck, her arms, her hair, and mouth--the delicious,
almost divine, feminine aroma that was part of herself.

"You do love me, Condy, don't you, just as I love you?"

Such words as he could think of seemed pitifully inadequate. For
answer he could only hold her the closer. She understood. Her eyes
closed slowly, and her face drew nearer to his. Just above a whisper,
she said:

"I love you, dear!"

"I love you, Blix!"

And they kissed each other then upon the mouth.

Meanwhile the sun had been setting. Such a sunset! The whole world,
the three great spaces of sea and land and sky, were incarnadined with
the glory of it. The ocean floor was a blinding red radiance, the
hills were amethyst, the sky one gigantic opal, and they two seemed
poised in the midst of all the chaotic glory of a primitive world. It
was New Year's Day; the earth was new, the year was new, and their love
was new and strong. Everything was before them. There was no longer
any past, no longer any present. Regrets and memories had no place in
their new world. It was Hope, Hope, Hope, that sang to them and called
to them and smote into life the new keen blood of them.

Then suddenl