ayne might enjoy that.

"It would do you both good."

"And leave you alone, Mama?"

"It's what I really want, dear."

The plan did not fulfil itself quite as Mr. Lanley had imagined. Mrs.
Wayne was out at some sort of meeting. They waited a moment for Pete.
Mathilde fixed her eyes on the lighted doorway, and said to herself that
in a few seconds the thing of all others that she desired would
happen--he would come through it. And almost at once he did, looking
particularly young and alive; so that, as he jumped in beside her on the
back seat, both her hands went out and caught his arm and clung to him.
Her realization of mortality had been so acute that she felt as if he had
been restored to her from the dead. She told him the horrors of the day.
Particularly, she wanted to share with him her gratitude for her mother's
almost magic kindness.

"I wanted you so much, Pete," she whispered; "but I thought it would be
heartless even to suggest my having wishes at such a time. And then for
her to think of it herself--"

"It means they are not really going to oppose our marriage."

They talked about their marriage and the twenty or thirty years of joy
which they might reasonably hope to snatch from life.

"Think of it," he said--"twenty or thirty years, longer than either of us
have lived."

"If I could have five years, even one year, with you, I think I could
bear to die; but not now, Pete."

In the meantime Mr. Lanley, alone on the front seat, for he had left
his chauffeur at home, was driving north along the Hudson and saying
to himself:

"Sixty-four. Well, I may be able to knock out ten or twelve pretty
satisfactory years. On the other hand, might die to-morrow; hope I
don't, though. As long as I can drive a car and everything goes well
with Adelaide and this child, I'd be content to live my full time--and a
little bit more. Not many men are healthier than I am. Poor Vincent! A
good deal more to live for than I have, most people would say; but I
don't know that he enjoys it any more than I do." Turning his head a
little, he shouted over his shoulder to Pete, "Sorry your mother
couldn't come."

Mathilde made a hasty effort to withdraw her hands; but Wayne, more
practical, understanding better the limits put upon a driver, held
them tightly as he answered in a civil tone: "Yes, she would have
enjoyed this."

"She must come some other time," shouted Mr. Lanley, and reflected that
it was not always necessary t