acknowledge it--worried a bit--but now,
_now_--the relief!"

"You thought I was wasting away in a shirtwaist factory!" she laughed.

He laughed too. "Not quite that. But, never mind, we don't need to go
into what I thought, but rather into what I think--what I _think_,
Ruth--what I shall always think." Compelling voice! Persuasive gaze! She
looked into his eyes. "Ruth!" The man leaned forward. "We've made a
mistake. What are you down here for all alone, anyhow? And what am I
doing, way up there, longing for you day after day, and missing you
every hour? My ambitions have become meaningless since you have dropped
out of my future. What is it all for? For what foolish notion, what
absurd fear have we sacrificed the most precious thing in the world?
Yesterday when I saw you----Oh, my dear, my dear, I need you. Come as
you are. I shan't try to make you over. There's only one thing that
counts after all, and that is ours."

With some such words as these did Bob frighten me away from the sweet
liberties my thoughts had been taking with him. I had been like some
hungry little mouse that almost boldly enters human haunts if he thinks
he is unobserved, but at the least noise of invitation scampers away
into his hole. I scampered now--fast. My problems were not yet solved. I
had things I must prove to Lucy, to Edith, to Tom--things I must test
and prove to myself. I could not go to him now. Besides, all the
reasons that stood in the way of our happiness existed still, in spite
of the fact that our joy of meeting blinded us to them for the moment. I
tried to make it clear to Bob.

"You can't have changed in a winter, Bob, and I haven't. We decided so
carefully, weighed the consequences of our decision. We were wise and
courageous. Let's not go back on it. I don't know what conclusions about
life I may reach finally, but I want to be able to grow freely. I'm like
a bulb that hasn't been put in the earth till just lately. I don't know
what sort of flower or vegetable I am, and you don't either. It's been
good to see you, Bob, and I needed some one to tell me that I was all
right, but now you must go away and let me grow."

"You wouldn't want to come and grow in my green-house then?" he smiled
sadly.

I shook my head. "That's just it, Bob. I don't want to grow in any
green-house yet. I want to be blown and tossed by all the winds of the
world that blow."

"I'll let you grow as you wish," he persisted.

"Please, Bob," I plea