und, swift and noiseless, he was on
the veranda, just as the singer, with tender, lingering emphasis,
repeated the words so low as to be barely audible to Darrell standing
before the open window. But even while he listened he gazed in
astonishment at the singer; could that magnificent woman be his
girl-love? She was superbly formed, splendidly proportioned; the rich,
warm blood glowed in her cheeks, and her hair gleamed in the light like
spun gold. He stood motionless; he would not retreat, he dared not
advance.

As the last words of the song died away, a slight sound caused the
singer to turn, facing him, and their eyes met. That was enough; in that
one glance the memory of his love returned to him like an overwhelming
flood. She was no longer his Dream-Love, but a splendid, living reality,
only more beautiful than his dreams or his imagination had portrayed
her.

He stretched out his arms towards her with the one word, "Kathie!"

She had already risen, a great, unspeakable joy illumining her face, but
at the sound of that name, vibrating with the pent-up emotion, the
concentrated love of all the years of their separation, she came swiftly
forward, her bosom palpitating, her eyes shining with the love called
forth by his cry. He stepped through the low window, within the room. In
an instant his arms were clasped about her, and, holding her close to
his breast, his dark eyes told her more eloquently than words of his
heart's hunger for her, while in her eyes and in the blushes running
riot in her cheeks he read his welcome.

He kissed her hair and brow, with a sort of reverence; then, hearing
voices in the corridor and rooms adjoining, he seized a light wrap from
a chair near by and threw it about her shoulders.

"Come outside, sweetheart," he whispered, and drawing her arm within his
own led her out onto the veranda and down the path along which he had
just come. In the first transport of their joy they were silent, each
almost fearing to break the spell which seemed laid upon them. The moon
had risen, transforming the sombre scene to one of beauty, but to them
Love's radiance had suddenly made the world inexpressibly fair; the very
flowers as they passed breathed perfume like incense in their path, and
the trees whispered benedictions upon them.

Darrell first broke the silence. "I would have been in Ophir to-night,
but some mysterious, irresistible impulse led me to stop here. Did you
weave a spell about me, y