ered more faithfully my
lady's eyes.

Anthony had wondered when she would come....

A breath of perfume, a swift whisper, the rustle of silk--and there was
Valerie by his side.

"Oh, Valerie!"

Miss French fell upon her knees.

Very gently Lyveden put her hand to his lips. Then he turned away his
head and began to cry.

With a bursting heart, Valerie almost gathered him in her arms.

"D'you love me, Anthony?"

By way of answer he just clung to her. At length--

"I'm--I'm sorry, my sweet.... It's--I think it's just because ... I
love you so much." With an effort he mastered his lips. "And I'm so
very sorry, dear, I kissed you like that--the day I went down. I
dreamed about it. I dreamed you came to me, and I apologized." With
her heart in her mouth, Valerie smoothed his brow. "And you were--so
very sweet. You said"--he hesitated--"you spoke so very handsomely."

"I'm so glad, darling."

"And, oh, Valerie,"--he was himself again now--"I've had such a
wonderful dream. I've been waiting for you, my darling, before I spoke
of it."

"What did you dream, lad?"

"I dreamed that I'd left the Bumbles--I had given notice, you know--and
gone, in answer to an advertisement, to a place in the Cotswolds. It's
all so real, so vivid, that it's almost impossible to appreciate that
it's all a dream. I can remember every detail of the journey--I had
Patch with me--down to the faces of my fellow-passengers. A woman with
a baby got out at Oxford and left a parcel behind. And I ran after her
with it. I can see her scared face now, poor soul, when I touched her
on the shoulder...."

The story of the last four months came pelting. Anthony fairly opened
his heart. At first, listening to the bare truth told with the
confident naivete of disbelief, Valerie felt as though she were
cheating the blind. After a little, this sense of shabbiness was
suddenly supplanted by a perfect torment of apprehension lest Anthony
should detect her hypocrisy. Presently, before her breathless interest
in the narrative, the girl's uneasiness slipped unremarked away, and,
when the door opened and the gentle nurse appeared to part them, she
was following the ingenuous recital with unaffected eagerness.

Valerie nodded her acquiescence in the unspoken order, and the nurse
withdrew. As the former rose to her feet--

"Ah, must you go, my lady?"

"Till this evening, dear lad."

Anthony sighed fretfully.

"And I've wasted all