sgust.

"Know what?" asked Virginia in surprise.

"Why--why--"

"What didn't I know?" insisted Virginia. "What is it about you and
me--" She looked to her husband for an explanation, but he was silent.
Anxiously she said: "Robert, tell me! Tell me!"

Stafford went up to her. Tenderly he replied:

"I will. It probably would have come up some time and perhaps it's
best that it has come up now. Listen, dear!"

"Yes?"

"Don't you think it would be best to start afresh without there being
even a chance for a misunderstanding between us--start on a basis of
absolute truth?"

"Certainly! Aren't we starting that way?"

Stafford shook his head as he replied gravely:

"No, dear."

Startled, she recoiled and looked at him in dismay.

"Robert!" she exclaimed.

"There's nothing to be alarmed about," he went on soothingly.
"Everything is all right."

"Tell me," she insisted firmly.

"Well, dear, now please, please don't be worried about it--when I came
I thought you had sent for me."

She looked at him as if bewildered. Unable to comprehend she cried
wildly:

"You thought I--Then everything is wrong! Everything!"

"No, dear," he replied firmly, "everything is right. You were fighting
for a principle. Have you surrendered it?"

"No," she stammered, bewildered.

"You asked for a promise. I gave it and now I repeat it, so that is
settled, isn't it?"

"Yes," she faltered.

"You said you wouldn't send for me and you haven't. Have you?"

"No."

"Then don't you see, dear, all along the line you won the victory?"

Jimmie, no longer able to contain himself, gave vent to a loud
chuckle. Delighted at this successful outcome of his scheming, he
cried gleefully:

"It's more than a victory! It's a landslide!"

Virginia remained silent. She was trying to understand. It was all a
mystery. Yet why let it trouble her further? All she knew was that her
husband had come for her and that her days of suffering were at an
end. What mattered whose the victory so long as her tears were dried
and they were reunited? Looking gratefully up at her husband she said
gravely:

"You thought the victory was yours, but when you found me claiming it
and realized what it meant to me, you hand it to me without a word.
That was a big thing to do!"

"What does anything matter?" he said eagerly. "I love you, you love me
and we are together again. That's everything, isn't it?"

"Yes, dear, that's everything," she answered, looking u