t of
having dropped back to earth and finding it a mournful place; "I never
had a moment's doubt as to what had happened to me. I knew I loved her;
I knew I wanted her; I knew her presence made my day and her absence
meant chill night; and every day was radiant, for she was there."

Garth paused for breath and to enjoy a moment of silent retrospection.

The doctor's voice broke in with a question, clear, incisive. "Was she
a pretty woman; handsome, beautiful?"

"A pretty woman?" repeated Garth, amazed: "Good heavens, no! Handsome?
Beautiful? Well you have me there, for, 'pon my honour, I don't know."

"I mean, would you have wished to paint her?"

"I HAVE painted her," said Garth very low, a moving tenderness in his
voice; "and my two paintings of her, though done in sadness and done
from memory, are the most beautiful work I ever produced. No eye but my
own has ever seen them, and now none ever will see them, excepting
those of one whom I must perforce trust to find them for me, and bring
them to me for destruction."

"And that will be--?" queried the doctor.

"Nurse Rosemary Gray," said Garth.

The doctor kicked the pine log, and the flames darted up merrily. "You
have chosen well," he said, and had to make a conscious effort to keep
the mirth in his face from passing into his voice. "Nurse Rosemary will
be discreet. Very good. Then we may take it the One Woman was
beautiful?"

But Garth looked perplexed. "I do not know," he answered slowly. "I
cannot see her through the eyes of others. My vision of her, in that
illuminating moment, followed the inspired order of things,--spirit,
soul, and body. Her spirit was so pure and perfect, her soul so
beautiful, noble, and womanly, that the body which clothed soul and
spirit partook of their perfection and became unutterably dear."

"I see," said the doctor, very gently. "Yes, you dear fellow, I see."
(Oh, Jane, Jane! You were blind, without a bandage, in those days!)

"Several glorious days went by," continued Garth. "I realise now that I
was living in the glow of my own certainty that she was the One Woman.
It was so clear and sweet and wonderful to me, that I never dreamed of
it not being equally clear to her. We did a lot of music together for
pure enjoyment; we talked of other people for the fun of it; we enjoyed
and appreciated each other's views and opinions; but we did not talk of
ourselves, because we KNEW, at least _I_ knew, and, before God, I
thought sh