, do you really see that,--_all_ that!"

She was enthralled like a child, as I described the landscape that lay,
spread immense, beneath us ... and the wide ocean, great and blue, that
tossed to the east.

Though I was genuinely possessed by this strange vision, though it was
no make-believe, I could not help injecting a little Kansas horse-play
into it....

I sank my teeth in "Naa's" shoulder, till she cried aloud. I seized her
by the hair and dragged her till she lay prone on the floor.

I stood over her, making guttural noises, which I did so realistically
that it made shivers run up and down my back while doing it....

I was almost as frightened as she was.

Before I knew it, she was thinking I had suddenly gone mad. She was
shouting "Mubby" for help--her husband's pet name....

The little fool! I caught her over the mouth with a grim hand.

"Don't do that ... can't a fellow play once in a while?"

"But it wasn't _all_ play, was it?"

"No, I really saw the cave, and the primeval landscape.

"Shall I tell you some more?"

"No, it frightens me too much ... it seems too real. And you've bruised
me, and my head feels as if you've torn half my hair out."

"Why did you call out your husband's pet name?"

"I don't know ... did I?"

"Yes!"

"After a pause in the dark.

"Tell me, was he ... was Mubby.. back there, in our former life?"

"O yes, he was there."

"And Darrie, too?"

"Yes, Darrie, too!"

"If my name was Naa and your name was Kaa, what were their names?"

"Mubby was named Baa and Darrie was Blaa!"

This convulsed Hildreth.

"You great, big, sweet fool of a poet, I do love you, I really do!"

* * * * *

"We were made for each other in every way ... my head just fits your
shoulder," she observed quaintly.

* * * * *

"Mubby came down to me this morning," said Hildreth one evening, "and
pleaded to be taken back again ... as husband...."

"And what?--"

"What did I do?... when I love you?... the mere idea made me sick to
think of. I couldn't endure him again."

* * * * *

One afternoon Penton and Hildreth were closeted together from lunch to
dark. It was my turn to cry out in my heart, and suffer agonies of
imagination.

* * * * *

The next morning Hildreth began packing up, with the aid of Mrs. Jones.
I came upon her, in the library, where I had gone