lf-confidence had instilled the belief that every one
wanted her, every one appreciated. What cause had Pixie O'Shaughnessy
to blush?

"Mavourneen!" cried Esmeralda tenderly, "I know. Thank God you've never
needed to blush or feel afraid, but, Pixie, when love comes, it's
different, everything is different! It's a new birth. The old
confidence goes, for it's a new life that lies ahead, and one stands
trembling on the brink. ... If what you feel is the right thing, you'll
understand. Pixie, dear, do I seem the wrong person to talk like this?
You know how it has been with us. We drifted apart--Geoff and I--so far
apart that I thought ... I can't talk of it--you know what I thought--
but, Pixie think! If the feeling between us had not been the _real_
thing, if we had married on affection only, where should we have been
now? Geoffrey loved me so much that he bore with me, through all these
years of strain, and when this great trouble came, he forgave me at
once, forgave everything, blotted it right out, and thought of nothing
but how to help me most. A cloud had rolled up between us, but it was
_only_ a cloud, the love was there all the time, hidden, like the sun,
ready to shine out again. ... Oh, Pixie, dear, the right thing is so
wonderful, so grand, that I can't let you miss it for the sake of a
mistake. You are so young. You don't understand. Let me write to
Stanor to-night and tell him it's a mistake, that you didn't know your
own mind!"

"You may talk till doomsday, Esmeralda," said Pixie quietly, "but I
shall keep my word!"

Mentally Pixie had been deeply impressed by the other's confidences, and
not a little perturbed thereby, but it was against her sense of loyalty
to allow such feelings to appear. To her own heart she confessed that
she was altogether without this strange sense of elation, this
mysterious new birth which Esmeralda considered all important under the
circumstances. She was certainly happy, for with Stanor's coming the
cloud which had hovered over the house had begun to disperse. She had
opened her own eyes to the good news of Jack's first sleep, and each day
the improvement had continued, while Stanor motored over, to sit by her
side, cheering her, saying loving, gentle things, building castles in
the air of a life together. ... Yes, she was _very_ happy, but ... she
had been happy before, there was nothing astoundingly, incredibly _new_
in her sensations.

Pixie sent her tho