uffer.

After a long time, when the nurse had bared his shoulder and had pricked
it with something that felt like a pin, they came back--all those lovely
faces; only now they seemed to peep from behind clouds of smoke, heavier
than the mists, and more tantalizing in their concealments.

So they came and went through the long night, leaving when the pain
racked him, returning always when the nurse did things to his shoulder
with her little shining instrument.

They fled from him, too, when he opened his eyes and saw hazily that
there was a light, and a great many flowers, and that Anthony was
standing in a sort of bower of them.

And Anthony was saying to some unseen person who stood at the head of
the bed, "Did he notice the flowers?"

"Yes."

"Good--you can take them out now--nurse."

He had tried to tell Anthony about the pretty ladies. But they had come
back and were whirling about him on that band of light--and there was
one with dark hair with a crescent moon above the parting--and there was
one who came closer than the others, and who had hair that shone like
gold, and a little white face.

"Betty----"

The nurse did not catch the name--but Anthony's quick ear was at once
attentive.

"She loves you, dear boy; and I'm going to make you well, so you may
marry her."

CHAPTER XXII

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

Far up in the hills the Beautiful Lady went daily to the post-office for
her mail.

It was a long walk, and the path skirted the edge of the forest. Leaving
the path one entered upon a world of dim green light, a world of soft
whispering sounds, a world of enchantment; and it was into this world
that Diana's feet strayed as she came and went. It was here she spent
most of her mornings; it was here she found the solitude she craved.

The guests at the mountain house called the Beautiful Lady exclusive;
but it was an exclusiveness which matched her air of remoteness, and
since such friendships as she encouraged were with those who were lonely
and tired and sick, she made no enemies by her withdrawal from the
conventional life of the place.

The lazy folk on the porch who were content to wait for the mail bag
which came at noon by carrier always watched with curiosity the
departure and return of the stately woman who was said to be wealthy
and of great social eminence. She went alone and came back just in time
for lunch, having loitered on the way to read her letters.

The letters, however,