ot heard him before. She was reclining among pillows, and her
face was turned toward the western sky. Her black dress gave him a pang.
He had never thought of her in black, except as a little girl. And such
she almost seemed to him now.

She turned toward him and gave a gasp.

"Mr. Keith!"

"Lois--I have come--" he began, and stopped.

She held out her hand and tried to sit up. Keith took her hand softly,
as if it were a rose, and closing his firmly over it, fell on one knee
beside her chair.

"Don't try to sit up," he said gently. "I went to Brookford as soon as I
heard of it--" he began, and then placed his other hand on hers,
covering it with his firm grasp.

"I thought you would," she said simply.

Keith lifted her hand and held it against his cheek. He was silent a
moment. What should he say to her? Not only all other women, but all the
rest of the world, had disappeared.

"I have come, and I shall not go away again until you go with me."

For answer she hid her face and began to cry softly. Keith knelt with
her hand to his lips, murmuring his love.

"I am so glad you have come. I don't know what to do," she said
presently.

"You do not have to know. I know. It is decided. I love you--I have
always loved you. And no one shall ever come between us. You are
mine--mine only." He went on pouring out his soul to her.

[Illustration: "Lois--I have come"--he began]

"My old Doctor--?" she began presently, and looked up at him with eyes
"like stars half-quenched in mists of silver dew."

"He agrees. We will make him live with us."

"Your father-?"

"Him, too. You shall be their daughter."

She gave him her hands.

"Well, on that condition."

* * * * *

The first person Keith sought to tell of his new happiness was his
father. The old gentleman was sitting on the porch at Elphinstone in the
sun, enjoying the physical sensation of warmth that means so much to
extreme youth and extreme age. He held a copy of Virgil in his hand, but
he was not reading; he was repeating passages of it by heart. They
related to the quiet life. His son heard him saying softly:

"'O Fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
Agricolas!'"

His mind was possibly far back in the past.

His placid face lit up with the smile that always shone there when his
son appeared.

"Well, what's the news?" he asked. "I know it must be good."

"It is," smiled Keith. "I am engaged to be married