ye are comin' to me, come noo, Mary" he begged. "My arms will
split if they dinna get round ye soon, dear. Jimmy told ye fra me,
sixteen years ago, how I loved ye, and he told me when he came back how
sorry ye were fra me, and he--he almost cried when he told me. I never
saw a mon feel so. Grand old Jimmy! No other mon like him!"

Mary drew back in desperation.

"You see here, Dannie Micnoun!" she screamed. "You see here----"

"I do," broke in Dannie. "I'm lookin'! All I ever saw, or see now, or
shall see till I dee is 'here,' when 'here' is ye, Mary Malone. Oh! If
a woman ever could understand what passion means to a mon! If ye knew
what I have suffered through all these years, you'd end it, Mary
Malone."

Mary gave the chair a shove. "Come here, Dannie," she said. Dannie
cleared the space between them. Mary set her hands against his breast.
"One minute," she panted. "Just one! I have loved you all me life, me
man. I niver loved any one but you. I niver wanted any one but you. I
niver hoped for any Hivin better than I knew I'd find in your arms.
There was a mistake. There was an awful mistake, when I married Jimmy.
I'm not tillin' you now, and I niver will, but you must realize that!
Do you understand me?"

"Hardly," breathed Dannie. "Hardly!"

"Will, you can take your time if you want to think it out, because
that's all I'll iver till you. There was a horrible mistake. It was YOU
I loved, and wanted to marry. Now bend down to me, Dannie Micnoun,
because I'm going to take your head on me breast and kiss your dear
face until I'm tired," said Mary Malone.

An hour later Father Michael came leisurely down the lane, and the
peace of God was with him.

A radiant Mary went out to meet him.

"You didn't till him!" she cried accusingly. "You didn't till him!"

The priest laid a hand on her head.

"Mary, the greatest thing in the whole world is self-sacrifice," he
said. "The pot at the foot of the rainbow is just now running over with
the pure gold of perfect contentment. But had you and I done such a
dreadful thing as to destroy the confidence of a good man in his
friend, your heart never could know such joy as it now knows in this
sacrifice of yours; and no such blessed, shining light could illumine
your face. That is what I wanted to see. I said to myself as I came
along, 'She will try, but she will learn, as I did, that she cannot
look in his eyes and undeceive him. And when she becomes reconciled,
her face w