g twilight. He
pushed his hat back on his head and looked up at the clear blue sky,
as if the keen breeze were pleasant to his temples. Then with a quick
motion, as though recalling his thoughts, he turned and rang the bell.
The latchkey of the householder was not his.

Ruth, sitting in the shadows, had scarcely heard the ring. She was
absorbed in a new train of thought. Rose Delano was the first one who
had clearly brought home to her the thought that she was really married.
She had been very quiet with her other friends, and every one, looking
at her grief-stricken face, had shrunk from mentioning what would have
called for congratulation. Rose, who knew only these two, naturally
dwelt on their changed relations. Her husband! Her dormant love gave
an exultant bound. Wave upon wave of emotion beat upon her heart; she
sprang to her feet; the door opened, and he came in. He saw her standing
faintly outlined in the dark.

"Good-evening," he said, coming slowly toward her with extended hand;
"have you been quite well to-day?" He felt her fingers tremble in
his close clasp, and let them fall slowly. "Bob sent you these early
violets. Shall I light the gas?"

"If you will."

He turned from her and rapidly filled the room with light.

"Where is your mother?" he asked, turning toward her again. Her face was
hidden in the violets.

"Upstairs with Louis. They had something to arrange. Did you wish to see
her?" To judge from Ruth's manner, Kemp might have been a visitor.

"No," he replied. "If you will sit down, we can talk quietly till they
come in."

As she resumed her high-backed chair and he seated himself in another
before her, he was instantly struck by some new change in her face. The
faraway, impersonal look with which she had met him in these sad days
had been what he had expected, and he had curbed with a strong will
every impulse for any closer recognition. But this new look,--what did
it mean? In the effort to appear unconcerned the dark color had risen to
his own cheeks.

"I had quite a pleasant little encounter to-day," he observed; "shall I
tell it to you?"

"If it will not tire you."

Keeping his eyes fixed on the picture over her head, he did not see the
look of anxious love that dwelt in her eyes as they swept over him.

"Oh, no," he responded, slightly smiling over the recollection. "I was
coming down my office steps this afternoon, and had just reached the
foot, when a bright-faced, bright-hair