through with him."

"I don't quite follow the parable."

"In other words, it's what a man's got in his head and not so much what
he's got on it that makes him strong," he explained, still more or less
cryptically.

"I am beginning to see. You made good use of what you have in your head,
is that it?"

"I made use of what you put into it a good many months ago, dear heart.
You have been in my head and in my heart all these months, and so it was
you who made me strong. Without you in there, I might have been as
weak as Samson was before he had his hair cut. No sensible man blames
Delilah. In fact, men are rather strong for her. When you stop to think
how long old Samson got away with it, and what a shock it must have been
to her after she trimmed him and found there wasn't anything left to
speak of, you've just got to feel sorry for her. She took one good look
at his head and understood why he let his hair grow. He was like the
fellow who wears long whiskers to develop his chin. If Samson had
had room enough in his head for a thought of anything except himself,
Delilah wouldn't have been able to catch him napping."

She could not help laughing. "You take a most original way of evading
the point. Still, I am satisfied. You did not have room in your head
for any one else but me,--and that's all there is to it. I can't help
feeling tremendously complimented, however. She is quite capable of
turning any man's head."

"She plays fair, Ruth," he said seriously. "She keeps the danger signal
up all the time. That's more than you can say for most women."

"Yes," said she; "she plays fair. She is a strange woman. She has given
me a lot of advice,--and I am just beginning to take it."

"If I had believed what she told me three months ago," said he, "this
glorious hour would have been advanced just that length of time."

Ruth stiffened. "What did she tell you?"

"She told me I was a fool and a coward; that all I had to do was to walk
up to you and say 'Here, I want you,' and that would have been the
end of my suspense. She told me something I didn't know and couldn't
believe."

"Indeed! I like her impudence! She--"

"She told me you were as much in love with me as I was with you.
Honest,--was she right?"

Ruth sighed. "I suppose she was right."

"And would you have come to me if I had said 'I want you '?"

"If you had said it as you say it now, I--listen! Good gracious! There
are the children!"

She sprang to her