e I always ... loved you, next to Atholl. But
after that ... after the fight, I simply ... adored you. And ... and ...
it's never left off since...."

"Tara! My loveliest!" he cried, between ecstasy and dismay; and
gathering her close again, he kissed her softly, repeatedly, murmuring
broken endearments. "And there was _I_...!"

"Yes. There were you ... with your poems and Aunt Lila and your dreams
about India--always with your head among the stars..."

"In plain English, a spoilt boy--as you once told me--wrapped up in
myself."

"No, you weren't. I won't _have_ it!" she contradicted him in her old
imperious way. "You were wrapped up in all kinds of wonderful things. So
you just ... didn't see me. You looked clean over my head. Of course it
often made me unhappy. But--it made me love you more. That's the way we
women are. It's not the men who run after us; it's the other kind...! I
expect you looked clean over poor Aruna's head. And if I asked her,
privately, she'd confess that was partly why ... and the other girl too
... if ..."

"Darling--_don't_!" he pleaded. "I'm ashamed, beyond words. I'll tell
you every atom of it truthfully ... my Tara. But this is _our_ moment. I
want more--about you.--Sit. It's full early. Then we'll go in (of course
you're coming to breakfast) and give Dad the surprise of his life....
Bother your old hat! It gets in the way. And I want to see your hair."

With a shyness new to him--and to Tara, poignantly dear--he drew out her
pins; discarded the offending hat, and took her head between his hands,
lightly caressing the thick coils that shaded from true gold to warm
delicate tones of brown.

Then he set her on the mossy seat near the trunk; and flung himself down
before her in the old way, propped on his elbows--rapt, lost in love;
divinely without self-consciousness.

"I'm _not_ looking over your head now," he said, his eyes deep in
hers:--deep and deeper, till the wild-rose flush invaded the delicate
hollows of her temples; and leaning forward she laid a hand across those
too eloquent eyes.

"Don't blind me altogether--darling. When people have been shut away
from the sun a long time----"

"But, Tara--why _were_ you...?" He removed the hand and kept hold of it.
"I begged you to come. I wanted you. Why _did_ you...?"

She shook her head, smiling half wistfully. "That's a bit of my old Roy!
But you're man enough to know--now, without telling. And I was woman
enough to know--then.