e all my tenderest best wishes for your
happiness--dear. If long ago I hadn't been such a blind fool as not to
know my own heart--"

"But--but there's some mistake," interposed Alice, palpitatingly, with
hanging head. "I--I'm not engaged to Mr. Calderwell."

Arkwright turned and sent a keen glance into her face.

"You're--not?"

"No."

"But I heard that Calderwell--" He stopped helplessly.

"You heard that Mr. Calderwell was engaged, very likely. But--it so
happens he isn't engaged--to me," murmured Alice, faintly.

"But, long ago you said--" Arkwright paused, his eyes still keenly
searching her face.

"Never mind what I said--long ago," laughed Alice, trying unsuccessfully
to meet his gaze. "One says lots of things, at times, you know."

Into Arkwright's eyes came a new light, a light that plainly needed but
a breath to fan it into quick fire.

"Alice," he said softly, "do you mean that maybe now--I needn't try to
fight--that other tiger skin?"

There was no answer.

Arkwright reached out a pleading hand.

"Alice, dear, I've loved you so long," he begged unsteadily. "Don't
you think that sometime, if I was very, very patient, you could just
_begin_--to care a little for me?"

Still there was no answer. Then, slowly, Alice shook her head. Her face
was turned quite away--which was a pity, for if Arkwright could have
seen the sudden tender mischief in her eyes, his own would not have
become so somber.

"Not even a little bit?"

"I couldn't ever--begin," answered a half-smothered voice.

"Alice!" cried the man, heart-brokenly.

Alice turned now, and for a fleeting instant let him see her eyes,
glowing with the love so long kept in relentless exile.

"I couldn't, because, you see-I began--long ago," she whispered.

"Alice!" It was the same single word, but spoken with a world of
difference, for into it now was crowded all the glory and the wonder of
a great love. "Alice!" breathed the man again; and this time the word
was, oh, so tenderly whispered into the little pink and white ear of the
girl in his arms.

"I got delayed," began Billy, in the doorway.

"Oh-h!" she broke off, beating a hushed, but precipitate, retreat.

Fully thirty minutes later, Billy came to the door again. This time her
approach was heralded by a snatch of song.

"I hope you'll excuse my being gone so long," she smiled, as she
entered the room where her two guests sat decorously face to face at the
chess-table.

"Well,