urned on Larry. "Maggie--we've agreed that I am to call her
that--Maggie stayed with me last night. There are two beds in my room.
But we didn't sleep much. Mostly we talked. If there's anything Maggie
didn't tell me about herself, I can't guess what there's left to tell.
According to herself, she's terrible. But that's for us to judge;
personally I don't believe her. She confessed that she really loved you,
but that after the way she'd treated you, of course she wasn't fit for
you. Which, of course, is just a girl's nonsense. I suppose you, Mr.
Brainard, are thinking something of the sort regarding your own self. It
is equally nonsense. You both love each other--you've both been through
a lot--nothing of importance now stands between you--so don't waste any
of your too short lives in coming together."

She took a deep breath and went on. "You might as well know, Mr.
Brainard, that Maggie is going to live with me for the present--that, of
course, she is going to be a very great burden to me--and it will be a
great favor to me if you'll marry her soon and take her off my hands."
And then the voice that had tried to keep itself brisk and even,
quavered with a sudden sob. "For Heaven's sake, dear children--don't be
fools!"

And with that she was gone.

For an instant Larry continued to gaze at Maggie's slender, trembling
figure. But something approaching a miracle--a very human miracle--had
just happened. All those doubts, fears, indecisions, unexpressed
desires, agonies of self-abasement, which might have delayed their
understanding and happiness for weeks and months, had been swept into
nothingness by the incisive kindliness of Miss Sherwood. In one minute
she had said all they might have said in months; there was nothing more
to say. There was nothing left of the past to discuss. Before them was
only the fact of that immediate moment, and the future.

Tremblingly, silently, Larry crossed to that trembling, silent figure
in white. She did not retreat. Tremblingly he took her hands and looked
down into her dark eyes. They were now flowing tears, but they met his
squarely, holding back nothing. The look in her eyes answered all he
desired to know just then, for he gathered her tight into his arms.
Wordlessly, but with a sharp, convulsive sob, she threw her arms about
his neck--and thus embracing, shaken with sharp sobs, they stood while
the minutes passed, not a single word having been spoken. And so it was
that these