t
nothing. To see the new light that had come in his eyes with
happiness. All gifts which love had given her.

"Well, at last," she said, going to the top of the steps to meet him
when he came. Her welcome was in her eyes.

"At last," he echoed, with a sigh of relief; pressing her hand which
she held out to him and raising it to his lips.

He did not let it go, but passed it through his arm, and together they
turned to walk up and down the veranda.

"You didn't expect me at noon, did you?" he asked, looking down at
her.

"No; you said you'd be likely not to come; but I hoped for you all the
same. I thought you'd manage it some way."

"No," he answered her, laughing, "my efforts failed. I used even
strategy. Held out the temptation of your delightful Creole dishes and
all that. Nothing was of any avail. They were all business and I had
to be all business too, the whole day long. It was horribly stupid."

She pressed his arm significantly.

"And do you think they will put all that money into the mill, David?
Into the business?"

"No doubt of it, dear. But they're shrewd fellows: didn't commit
themselves in any way. Yet I could see they were impressed. We rode
for hours through the woods this morning and they didn't leave a stick
of timber unscrutinized. We were out on the lake, too, and they were
like ferrets into every cranny of the mill."

"But won't that give you more to do?"

"No, it will give me less: division of labor, don't you see? It will
give me more time to be with you."

"And to help with the plantation," his wife suggested.

"No, no, Madame Therese," he laughed, "I'll not rob you of your
occupation. I'll put no bungling hand into your concerns. I know a
sound piece of timber when I see it; but I should hardly be able to
tell a sample of Sea Island cotton from the veriest low middling."

"Oh, that's absurd, David. Do you know you're getting to talk such
nonsense since we're married; you remind me sometimes of Melicent."

"Of Melicent? Heaven forbid! Why, I have a letter from her," he said,
feeling in his breast pocket. "The size and substance of it have
actually weighted my pocket the whole day."

"Melicent talking weighty things? That's something new," said Therese
interested.

"Is Melicent ever anything else than new?" he enquired.

They went and sat together on the bench at the corner of the veranda,
where the fading Western light came over their shoulders. A quizzical
smile came int