cked a sudden sob and, rising, moved to
the window.

Lucas lay silent, but his eyes watched her with a great tenderness.

When she came back to him she was smiling. "Have you ever begun to think
of what you will do when you are well?" she said.

"I am thinking of it always," he answered. "I make wonderful pictures for
myself sometimes. You are the central figure of them all."

She clasped his hand again in hers. "Lucas," she said, "will you
take me away?"

"Yes, dear," he said.

"Far away from anywhere I have ever been before?" Her voice shook a
little. "I want to begin life over again where everything is new."

A certain shrewdness gleamed in the steady eyes that watched her, but it
was mingled with the utmost kindness.

"I guess I'd better show you my best picture right now," he said. "It's
got a steam yacht in it, and a state cabin fit for a queen. And it goes
rocking around the world, looking for the Happy Islands. I guess we shall
find them some day, sweetheart--maybe sooner than we think."

"Ah, yes," she said. "We won't stop looking till we do. How soon shall we
start, Luke?"

He answered her with a smile, but there was a thrill of deep feeling in
his words. "Just as soon as I can stand on my feet like any other man,
Anne, and hold the woman I love in my arms."

She bent her face suddenly, pressing her cheek to the hand she held. "I
am ready for you when ever you will," she murmured.

"I know it," he said. "And God bless you for telling me so!"

He was full of kindness to her that day, and she thought him cheerier
than he had been all the winter. When she bade him good-bye that
afternoon he seemed in excellent spirits. Yet after she was gone he lay
for a long while staring at the specks of dust that danced in a shaft of
sunlight, with the air of a man seeking the solution of a problem that
baffled him. And once very suddenly he sighed.

Anne went through the ordeal of publicity with less embarrassment than
she had anticipated. Mrs. Errol was with her, and she was surrounded by
friends. Even Major Shirley deigned to look upon her with a favourable
eye. Bertie was hunting, but Dot was present to view the final
achievement of her favourite scheme.

She seized the first opportunity to slip her arm through Anne's. "Do--do
come home with me to tea," she whispered very urgently. "I want to show
you some things I have been making. And make the dear mater come too, if
someone else doesn't snap her up fir