ad--and I think you the finest man I ever knew--worthy of me
or not, I'd rather be your wife than anything this world could bring.
Oh, ye've been so long away, Danvers," she said, with a sob, "so long
away----"

"God!" he cried, the word sounding like a prayer, as he gathered her in
his arms, kissing her lips, her eyes, her hair; and, the time being
made for them, I went quietly from the room.

An hour passed, two; and when midnight was tolled, I knew that Nancy's
health must be thought of, and crossed the hall to pack Danvers off
home. I found him, glorified, at one side of the chimney-shelf, and
Nancy, like a beautiful crumpled rose, at the other; Nancy, with eyes
showing the memory of Danvers's kisses; conscious to the finger-tips,
all woman, who had been learning for the past two hours from her
lover's passionate caresses the Meaning of Life.

"Be off home with you, Danvers Carmichael," I cried. "Ye'll have this
child of mine ill again!"

"I am not going home," he said determinedly. "She is not well, and she
needs some one to sit up with her."

I laughed in his face. "With Dickenson in the next room, Joan Landy
sleeping at the foot of the bed, and McMurtrie and myself across the
hall, she scarce suffers from lack of attention," I answered, and here
he took another course.

"Oh," he cried, "think of what I have been through--think of all the
bitter days and nights of separation from her! Think how near I came to
losing her altogether. Think of the hell of the last two years, and let
me stay," he cried, pleadingly; and here the young rascal put his hand
on my shoulder.

"Father," he cried.

The word made me wax in his hand, and I compromised. "Ye can have the
rooms next to mine and stay with us to-night," I gave in.

"I shall stay till the wedding. I'm going to live here," he returned
with a laugh, at which I carried him off to my own rooms, though he
went back twice to Nancy's door to say something he'd forgotten.

I knew that "forgotten thing." I had gone back often to say it myself.
What lover has not? But at the third announcement of his forgettings I
lost patience with him.

"Danvers Carmichael! Many's the time in our college days that I have
thrown your father down and sat on him to keep him from some piece of
deviltry, and despite my years, I fear I'll have to treat ye the same
way," I cried, upon which we ordered the pipes and some brandy, and sat
till the clear day was come, talking the past ove