her. "The doctor's house? Who went?"

"Dr. Anthony and Miss Betty and me. They asked me. She hadn't ever seen
it, and he wanted to show it to her."

Diana felt her heart stand still.

"Did you go--into every room, Delia?"

"Yes."

So he had taken little Betty there. They had entered that room to which,
that very morning, she had carried white lilacs, moved by some impulse
to call it her own until some one else should have the right to claim
it.

"I'll look up Peter," she told Delia, hastily. "You needn't wait for
me."

The town clock struck half-past eleven as she went through the
garden--wraith-like in her long white wrap.

"Peter," she called softly, "Peter, Peter."

Following the path over the rocks, she came at last to the empty house.

A faint mew sounded from within. She turned the knob, and found the door
unlocked. "Peter," she called again, and the big cat came forth, his
tail waving like a plume.

Diana, facing the darkness of the great hall, felt impelled to enter, to
slip silently up the stairs, to stand on the threshold of the
moonlighted chamber, whence came the perfume of white lilacs.

And as she stood there, she saw, with a sudden leap of the heart, that
Anthony was before her. Silhouetted against the wide space of the open
window he was looking out at the flashing light.

She put her hand to her throat. She stepped back as if to escape. Then,
swayed by an impulse which cast prudence to the winds, she spoke his
name.

"Anthony!"

"Diana!"

He had turned from the window, and was peering through the dimness. He
came toward her. She held out her hands to keep him back.

"Oh, please--no--no----"

But he took her in his arms.

When he let her go his face was white.

"There is no excuse for me," he said. "I know that. I've given my word
of honor to that little child--who trusts me. Yet--this room belongs to
you. Before you came to-night I touched the lilacs with my lips, and it
seemed to me as if they were your lips--that I touched. And when I
turned and saw you--white--like a bride--on the threshold--it was as I
had seen you, night after night--in my dreams. You belong here and no
other, Diana!"

What she said in reply Diana could never remember with any great
distinctness. She only knew that she was trying to hold on as best she
could to the best that was within her. Anthony in this moment of
weakness was hers. Whatever she did now would bring him to her or send
him away--perha