mical--inflection in his voice.

"Now that's unkind of you, Tim," she protested smilingly. "I thought
you were a good enough pal not to want to chortle over me--as I know
Geoffrey will--should the thing turn out a frost!"

"Well, I'm not, then," he returned roughly.

The churlish tones were so unlike Tim that Sara looked up at him in
some amazement. He was staring down at her with a strange, _awakened_
expression in his eyes; his face was very white and his mouth working.

With a sudden apprehension of what was impending, she sprang up,
stretching out her hand as though to ward it off.

"No--no, Tim. It isn't--don't say it's that----"

He caught her hand and held it between both his.

"But it _is_ that," he said, speaking very fast, the serenity of his
face all broken up by the surge of emotion that had gripped him. "It is
that. I love you. I didn't know it till you spoke of going away. Sara--"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She broke in hastily. "Don't say any more,
Tim--please don't!"

In the silence that followed the two young faces peered at each
other--the one desperate with love, the other full of infinite regret
and pleading.

At last--

"It's no use, then?" said Tim dully. "You don't care?"

"I'm afraid I don't--not like that. I thought we were friends--just
friends, Tim," she urged.

Tim lifted his head, and she saw that somehow, in the last few minutes,
he had grown suddenly older. His gay, smiling mouth had set itself
sternly; the beautiful boyish face had become a man's.

"I thought so, too," he said gently. "But I know now that what I feel
for you isn't friendship. It's"--with a short, grim laugh--"something
much more than that. Tell me, Sara--will there ever be any chance for
me?"

She hesitated. She was so genuinely fond of him that she hated to give
him pain. Looking at him, standing before her in his splendid young
manhood, she wondered irritably why she _didn't_ love him. He was
pre-eminently loveable.

He caught eagerly at her hesitation.

"Don't answer me now!" he said swiftly. "I'll wait--give me a chance.
I can't take no . . . I won't take it!" he went on masterfully. "I love
you!" Impetuously he slipped his strong young arms about her and kissed
her on the mouth.

The previous moment she had been all softness and regret, but now,
at the sudden passion in his voice, something within her recoiled
violently, repudiating the claim his love had made upon her.

Sara was the last w