he
Continent to execute the commission. He tried to recall her appearance
the day of the assault. The impression was too blurred by excitement to
have much meaning. He wondered if she really showed the ten years added
to her age. At least he knew that she had not been happy. There was
some consolation in that. Her ceaseless efforts to win back his
friendship had left no room for doubt. He sank deep into the great
chair and silently waited her coming.

When he suddenly heard the rustle of her dress in the hall his heart
began to pound. He rose with a movement of nervous anger. His boasted
self-control was a myth, after all.

When Nan's radiant figure appeared in the doorway, her bare arm
extended, her lips parted in a tender smile, Stuart knew that his face
was red. The fact that he knew it increased his confusion until the
whole room became a blur. His feet refused to move, and he stood
staring at the approaching vision as if in a trance.

Her hand touched his. The shock was sobering; he remembered himself and
smiled.

"What a long, long time, Jim!"

"A thousand years--I think, Nan," he stammered.

"Nine hundred to be exact, sir, but better late than never. I began to
think your stubbornness would postpone this call until the next world."

"And we may not land at the same place on the other side?"

"A compliment or an insult?"

"I don't know, do you?"

He was laughing quietly now, his nerves stronger by the tension of the
challenge of her evident gaiety.

She smiled a gracious forgiveness of his dubious answer.

"Mr. Bivens was detained down town on business. I am awfully sorry he's
not here to join in my welcome."

"Well, I'm not."

He was looking steadily at her with curious concentration.

She answered with a flash from her dark eyes and critically looked him
over.

"Well?" he asked.

"I'm awfully disappointed."

"Why?"

"My vanity is hurt. I expected to find you, after nine years, with deep
lines of suffering written on your face. You are better looking than
ever. The few gray hairs about your temples are extremely becoming.
Your honours have given you a new repose, a dignity and reserve power I
couldn't conceive when I saw you battered by that mob."

"Allow me to return the compliment by saying that you are even a more
startling disappointment to me. I was sure that I should find you
broken."

"And you don't?"

Stuart smiled.

"I'd as well confess it frankly. You are far more beauti