th a gentle
insistence upon his mouth.

"Jerry," she said very softly, "that's enough--please. I understand.
That had to be said. I knew you would say it. It's what you think you
ought to say, of course. But--it's said now. You needn't repeat it. For
it's not the thing--I'm waiting for you to say."

"Nan----"

"Would you make a poor girl do it all?" she questioned, with a
suggestion of both laughter and tears in her voice.

"But, Nan----"

"I'm not used to it," she urged. "It's very embarrassing. And I ought to
be asleep this minute, getting ready for my early start. I'm not quite
sure that I shall sleep if you say it"--her voice dropped to a whisper
again--"but I'm sure I shall not if--you--don't."

"My dear girl----"

"That's hardly warm enough, is it--under the circumstances--when you
won't see me for a year? Jerry--a whole year----"

"Nan--for the love of Heaven come around here!"

"Not so much for the love of Heaven as----"

"No--for the love of you--you--_you!_"

She came at last--and then she saw his eyes. But she could not meet them
after the first glance. She lay in his arms, held there by a grasp so
strong that it astonished her beyond measure. So, for a time; then he
began to speak--in her ear now, where, in its pinkness, with a little
brown curl touching his lips, it listened.

"You've made me say it, dear, when for your sake I would have kept it
back. But you know--you must know, nothing can come of it."

He heard her murmur, "Why?"

"You know why."

"I don't."

He drew a deep breath.

"Don't you want me?" she asked--into his shoulder.

"Want you!"

"You've everything to offer me."

"Nan----"

"Everything I want. Jerry"--she lifted her head and looked for an
instant into his eyes--"I shall die of heartache if you won't offer it."

"A wreck of a life----"

"I won't let you call it that again," she flashed. "You--Jerrold
Fullerton--whose merest scrawl is reviewed by every literary editor in
the land. Do you think you can't do still better work with--with me?"

"But you wouldn't be marrying Jerrold Fullerton's mind alone."

"No--his soul--all there is of him--his great personality--himself. And
that's so much more than I can give in return----"

"Nan, darling----"

"Yes----"

"Go to Paris for a year, but don't bind yourself to me. Then, when you
come back, if----"

"If I'm still of the same mind----Jerry, you sound like the counsel of a
wise and worldly grandmother," wi