total absence of any milk-and-water
convention about Curtis's method of showing delight at meeting her was
at once bewildering and stupefying.

There must be a great deal, too, which does not leap promptly to the
eye in the study of such a dry-as-dust subject as psychology, because
three of its fixed principles are: "Experience is the process of
becoming expert by experiment," "One finds a measure of truth in the
naive realism of Common Sense;" and "Action and Reaction are strictly
correlative."

Applying these tests to the remarkable rapidity of decision and fixity
of purpose displayed by Curtis in squeezing the breath out of Hermione,
and gazing into her eyes until her proud head bent and sought refuge
for a glowing face by hiding it on his breast, it will be noted first,
that, for a man who had no experience in love-making, Curtis was
quickly becoming expert; secondly, that Common Sense teaches that if
one would win a wife one must also woo her; and thirdly, that a
wonderfully effective way to obtain a satisfactory response from
Hermione was to reveal the educational value of a hug.

At last, then--though not before Hermione's arms had gone around his
neck of their own accord, and her lips had met his with a sigh of sheer
content--he permitted her to speak. And of all things in the world she
said that which it thrilled him to hear.

"John, dear," she murmured, "we have become husband and wife in a
strange, mad way, but, perhaps it is for the best, and I shall try
never to give you cause for regret."

By this time one hand was firmly braced around her waist, but the other
was free to lift her chin until her swimming eyes met his.

"Hermione," he said, "I vowed last night that not all the men and laws
in America would tear you from me. If we parted, it was you, and you
alone, who could send me away, and I am glad, oh, so glad, that you
have come back to me."

"Dearest, it sounds like a dream," she said brokenly. "Can a man and a
woman truly love each other who have only met as you and I have met?"

"I think we have solved that problem for all time," he said, tilting
her hat with the joyous abandon of a lover jealous even of the flowers
and plaited straw which should hide any of the sweet perfections of his
mistress.

"But you have plunged me into a sort of trance," she whispered. "I
came here to explain----"

An ominous rattle of a laden tray at the outer door drove them apart as
though a thunderbolt