eveloped. It was not
surprising that her metamorphosis had escaped his attention, for he had
never taken time to do more than briefly appraise her. With leisure for
observation, however, he noted that she had made good her promise of
rare physical charm, and that her comeliness had ripened into real
beauty--beauty built on an overwhelming scale, to be sure, and hence
doubly striking--moreover, he saw that all traces of her stolidity had
vanished. She was an intelligent, wide-awake, vibrant person, and at
this moment a genial fire, a breathless excitement, was ablaze within
her. Gray complimented her frankly, and she was extravagantly pleased.

"Buddy said almost the same thing," she told him. "I don't care whether
it's true or not, if you believe it."

"Oh, it's true! I saw great things in you, but--"

"Even when you saw me hoeing in the garden that first day?"

"Even then; but I wasn't prepared for a miracle. You were an enchanted
princess, and it required only a magic word to break the spell."

"It is all your doings, Mr. Gray. Whatever I am I owe it all to you.
And it's the same with the rest of the family. I--" Allie hesitated,
looked up from her work, then shook her head smilingly.

"What?"

"I feel as if--well, as if you'd made me and I--belonged to you." It
was dusk by this time; the girl's face was lit only by the indirect
glow from the open door of the stove, therefore Gray could make nothing
of her expression.

"How very flattering!" he laughed. "As a real matter of fact, I had
almost nothing to do with it."

"All the same that's how I feel--as if I owed you everything and had to
give something back. Women are queer, I guess. They love to give. And
yet they're selfish--more selfish than men."

"I wouldn't say so."

"You don't know how bad hurt you were, Mr. Gray. I saved your life as
much as Buddy did. You'd have died only for--only I wouldn't let you."

"I believe it. So, you see, you have more than evened the score. After
all, I merely awakened the Sleeping Beauty, while you--"

"The prince woke her up with a kiss, didn't he?" Allie said, with a
smile.

"So the story goes. Fairy stories, by the way, are the only kind one
can afford to believe."

"Then I've got--something coming to me, haven't I?"

This time the girl turned her face invitingly to the speaker and waited.

Here was a new Allie Briskow, indeed, and one that amazed, nay,
disturbed, Gray. Romance, he told himself. The girl mea