He sprang to his feet, tense, eager, all
his nerves tingling, and his quirt hissed through the air and snapped a
defiance, a warning to the world as he clasped her to him. "I _knew_,
I _knew!_" he cried passionately. "In my heart I _knew_ you were a
thoroughbred!"

He tilted her head back, but she laughed low with delight and eluded him,
leading him to a chair, the chair he had occupied on the occasion of his
first visit, and then drew a low, rough footrest beside him and seated
herself at his feet, her elbows resting on his knees and her chin in her
hands. He looked down into the upturned face and then glanced swiftly
about the homelike room and back to her face again. She snuggled tightly
against his knees and waited patiently for his story.

He sighed contentedly and touched her cheek reverently and then told her
all of the story of Tex Williard, from the very beginning to the very end,
from the time he had seen Tex bending over one of his father's cows to
the last scene in the thicket. When he had finished, Helen took his head
between her hands, pressing it warmly as she nodded wisely to show that
she understood. He looked deep into her eyes and then suddenly bent
his head until his lips touched her ear: "Helen, darling," he whispered,
"how long must I wait?"

"Why, you scamp!" she exclaimed, teasingly, threatening to draw away from
him. "You haven't even told me that you love me!"

He pressed her hands tightly and laughed aloud, joyously, filled with an
elated, effervescent gladness which surged over him in waves of delight:
"Haven't I? Oh, but you know better, dear. Many and many times I have
told you that, and in many ways, and you knew it and understood. You
never doubted it, and I hope," he added seriously, "that you never will."

"I never will, dear."

They did not hear Grace Ritchie in the kitchen, did not hear her quiet
step as it crossed the threshold and stopped, and then tiptoed to the
rear door and sped lightly around the house to the street, and down it
to where Mrs. Shields and Mary were walking toward the house. They did not
know that half an hour had passed since the coming of the quiet step and
the three women, and that the supper was hopelessly ruined. They knew
nothing--and Everything: they had learned the Great Happiness.

THE END

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