dows, looking westward, gave generous
admittance to a flood of afternoon sunlight.

Eldred, standing on the hearth-rug, surveyed all things in an access of
silent satisfaction; while Quita moved lightly to and fro, frankly
interested in details.

"Oh, how I love the cleanness and emptiness of these Swiss rooms!" she
exclaimed at last. "They make one feel so unspeakably wholesome and
good. And we are actually going to have dinner here, you and I? Just
our two selves! How strange!"

On a sudden impulse she came close to him, and standing before him,
took the lapels of his coat, one in each hand.

"Eldred, . . . I don't seem able to take it in at all! Other brides
have so much of external paraphernalia to emphasise the fact they have
closed one chapter of life, and begun another. But except for that
dreamlike half-hour in church, you and I seem merely to have come away
together for an everyday outing; and there is nothing anywhere, . . .
except this,"--she lifted the third finger of her left hand,--"to make
me realise that we are actually . . . married."

She spoke the last word under her breath; and almost before it was out,
he had caught her to himself, and kissed her fervently, again and again.

"Does that help you to realise it a little better, . . . my wife?" he
whispered; and for answer she drew in a long breath that was almost a
sob. He released her at once; and as she faced him, flushed and
breathless, he saw that tears stood in her eyes.

"Why, . . . why did you never . . . kiss me . . . like that before?"
she asked very low.

"God knows I have wanted to, a hundred times," he answered. "But I
think I was afraid you might . . . hate it. Why do you ask, though?
Would it have made any difference between us if I had?"

"I can't tell; . . . oh, I can't tell! Only . . . you have been so
restrained, so unlike an . . . ordinary lover, that I never dreamed it
could mean as much to you . . . as all that . . ." She pulled herself
together with an effort. "Now I am going to take off my things," she
said. "Don't come, please. I want to get away by myself."

A moment later he stood alone, between the sunlight and the firelight,
gazing blankly at the door that hid her from view; and wondering
whether he had advanced or retarded matters by his unpremeditated flash
of self-revelation.

II.

"A turn, and we stand in the heart of things."
--Browning.

When Eldred Lenox sailed from Ind