lace where adoration dwells.

The great, smoky, thunderous city somehow added to the sweetness of the
meeting--made it the more precious, like a song in a tempest. It seemed
to Ben Fordyce as if he had never really lived before. The very need of
concealment gave his unspoken passion a singular quality--a tang of the
wilding, the danger-some, which his intimacy with Alice had never
possessed.

The Haneys' suite of rooms at the hotel called for comment. "Surely
Haney is feeling the power of money--but why not; who has a better right
to lovely things than Bertha?" Then aloud he repeated: "How well you're
looking--both of you! City life agrees with you. I never saw you look so
well."

This remark, innocent on its surface, brought self-consciousness to
Bertha, for the light of his glance expressed more than admiration; and
even as they stood facing each other, alive to the same disturbing
flush, Lucius called Haney from the room, leaving them alone together.
The moment of Ben's trial had come.

For a few seconds the young wife waited in breathless silence for him to
speak, a sense of her own wordlessness lying like a weight upon her.
Into the cloud of her confusion his voice came bringing confidence and
calm. "I feel that you have forgiven me--your eyes seem to say so. I
couldn't blame you if you despised me. I won't say my feeling has
changed, for it hasn't. It may be wrong to say so--it is wrong, but I
can't help it. Please tell me that you forgive me. I will be happier if
you do, and I will never offend again." His accent was at once softly
pleading and manly, and, as she raised her eyes to his in restored
self-confidence, she murmured a quaint, short, reassuring phrase: "Oh,
that's all right!" Her glance, so shy, so appealing, united to the
half-humorous words of her reply, were so surely of the Mountain-West
that Ben was quite swept from the high ground of his resolution, and his
hands leaped towards her with an almost irresistible embracing impulse.
"You sweet girl!" he exclaimed.

"Don't!" she said, starting back in alarm--"don't!"

His face changed instantly, the clear candor of his voice reassured her.
"Don't be afraid. I mean what I said. You need have no fear that I--that
my offence will be repeated;" then, with intent to demonstrate his
self-command, he abruptly changed the subject. "The Congdons sent their
love to you, and Miss Franklin commissioned me to tell you that she will
give you all her time next