rass on the top of a sand dune.

"I like this!" she cried joyously.

"So do I," he answered soberly, and lapsed into silence.

The sun was warm and genial. The wind had died, and the waves of the
rising tide were creeping up the long, sloping stretches of the sand
with a lazy, soothing rush. A winter gull poised above their heads and
soared seaward. The smoke of an ocean liner streaked the horizon as she
swept toward the channel off Sandy Hook.

Jim looked at the girl by his side and tried to speak. She caught the
strained expression in his strong face and lowered her eyes.

He began to trace letters in the sand.

She knew with unerring instinct that he had made his first desperate
effort to speak his love and failed. Would he give it up and wait for
weeks and possibly months--or would he storm the citadel in one mad rush
at the beginning?

He found his voice at last. He had recovered from the panic of his first
impulse.

"Well, how do you like my idea of a good day as far as you've gone?" he
asked lightly.

She met his gaze with perfect frankness. "The happiest day I ever spent
in my life," she confessed.

"Honest?"

"Honest."

"Oh, shucks--what's the use!" he cried, with sudden fierce resolution.
"You've got me, Kiddo, you've got me! I've been eatin' out of your hand
since the minute I laid my eyes on you in that big room. I'm all yours.
You can do anything you want with me. For God's sake, tell me that you
like me a little."

The blood slowly mounted to her cheeks in red waves of tremulous
emotion.

"I like you very much," she said in low tones.

He seized her hand and held it in a desperate grip.

"I love you, Kiddo," he went on passionately. "You don't mind me calling
you Kiddo? You're so dainty and pretty and sweet, and that dimple keeps
coming in your cheek, it just seems like that's the word--you don't
mind?"

"No----"

"You don't know how I've been starvin' all my life for the love of a
pure girl like you. You're the first one I ever spoke to. I was scared
to death yesterday when I saw you. But I'd 'a' spoke to you if it killed
me in my tracks. I couldn't help it. It just looked like an angel had
dropped right down out of the gold clouds from that ceilin'. I was
afraid I'd lose you in the crowd and never see you again. It didn't seem
you were a stranger anyhow--I didn't seem strange to you, did I?"

Her lips quivered, and she was silent.

"Didn't you feel like you'd known me somewher