ade
me strong. I came here a foolish girl, foolish and selfish and narrow.
God sent me grief. Three years ago my heart died. Now I am living again.
I am a woman now, no longer a girl. You have done this for me. Your
life, your words, yourself--you have showed me a better, a higher life,
than I had ever known before, and now you send me away.'

She paused abruptly.

'Blind, stupid fool!' I said to myself.

He held himself resolutely in hand, answering carefully, but his voice
had lost its coldness and was sweet and kind.

'Have I done this for you? Then surely God has been good to me. And you
have helped me more than any words could tell you.'

'Helped!' she repeated scornfully.

'Yes, helped,' he answered, wondering at her scorn.

'You can do without my help,' she went on. 'You make people help you.
You will get many to help you; but I need help, too.' She was standing
before him with her hands tightly clasped; her face was pale, and her
eyes deeper than ever. He sat looking up at her in a kind of maze as she
poured out her words hot and fast.

'I am not thinking of you.' His coldness had hurt her deeply. 'I am
selfish; I am thinking of myself. How shall I do? I have grown to depend
on you, to look to you. It is nothing to you that I go, but to me--' She
did not dare to finish.

By this time Craig was standing before her, his face deadly pale. When
she came to the end of her words, he said, in a voice low, sweet, and
thrilling with emotion--

'Ah, if you only knew! Do not make me forget myself. You do not guess
what you are doing.'

'What am I doing? What is there to know, but that you tell me easily to
go? She was struggling with the tears she was too proud to let him see.

He put his hands resolutely behind him, looking at her as if studying
her face for the first time. Under his searching look she dropped her
eyes, and the warm colour came slowly up into her neck and face; then,
as if with a sudden resolve, she lifted her eyes to his, and looked back
at him unflinchingly.

He started, surprised, drew slowly near, put his hands upon her
shoulders, surprise giving place to wild joy. She never moved her eyes;
they drew him towards her. He took her face between his hands, smiled
into her eyes, kissed her lips. She did not move; he stood back from
her, threw up his head, and laughed aloud. She came to him, put her head
upon his breast, and lifting up her face said, 'Kiss me.' He put his
arms about her, be