nner

glow over the heavy mahogany library table upon which it stood. The room slowly warmed out of the gloom and shadows as though the three walls closed in nearer to the fire. Just outside the

ctly in front of the grandfather's clock, so that facing her he faced the pendulum which ticked out to him the cost of each new picture he had of her. It was now within a few minutes of midnight-one half of his first day gone befor

which ticked out to him the cost

he so loved, in his room there waited for him the gentle marine, the bit of brown ivory, the luxury of deep blooming roses, and yet he was not conscious of missing them. Those things had been waiting for him all through the long tedious years, and this-well perhaps this, too, had been waitin

he sharp cut corners of her mouth, and the fine hair over her white forehead dated back to women whose features had long been refined through their souls. All that

ugh fearful of what might happen next. The light played upon her hair and h

h he for his part would have been willing to continue, "but"-she looked up at

accept it merely as a

with some spirit. "I don't know what has co

od for any on

u k

wered

, I

re subtle means such as she now seemed to suggest to him, can be found in that cruder relationship always at the command of those with some fortune. The thought

she protested, to ward off any suspicions that might be l

h he by no means

most too much emphasis, "if Ben were well. I thin

hen he broke

ey are ghosts, these strangers,-human ghosts with fingers which clutch your

nced up

d. "The loneliness comes then be

re in N

true of the woo

the trees?" he asked qui

to learn to love them. Es

till grow for the sky and the beasts and not for

d, "one never fe

ss vague thoughts which yet were most rea

. They swept him to the rhythm of some haunting music back to the days when his blood had run strong-back to the beauty of the hills at twenty when he had not felt big enough by himself to absorb their full marvel. In a dim mystical way he had realized even then that th

those forgotten hours. It was as though she cleared away the intervening years and made him face the fragrant Spri

nd moving a chair to the other side of the fire sat down. Behind her the o

y man other than Mr. Arsdale that she could have endured to associate with those days. She felt at ease with him there, and this made her feel that he had more right to be here now. His eager face softened when he spoke of those things. There was in it then none of tha

him, "of some of yo

d seemed dead and buried. Now he was in the mood fo

eam he knew, where, if you lie very quiet in the moss, you see speckled trout dart over white pebbles into the darker water beneath the lichened rocks. He told her of the shallows, and pools, and falls you find if you keep to its banks for the miles it sings by the grave trees. He told her of mountain tops where he had lain

ences where dreams are born. Here he came upon other things-the old

d beyond. He was here before an open fire, with this girl in the background, with beautiful rugs and pictures about him, with a great seething, struggling, future-chained horde outside, and