ed girl; and
he hoped that he could keep her. But just as he was beginning to bask
in this new light--it went out. As suddenly as they had come, the little
brown-eyed girl and the gray cat went away. Why, the man did not know.
He knew only that the ache had come back, doubly intense, and that the
rooms were more gloomy than ever. And now, Billy,"--William's voice
shook a little--"it is for you to finish the story. It is for you to say
whether that man's heart shall ache on and on down to a lonely old age,
and whether those rooms shall always echo the sighs and sobs of the
past."

"And I will finish it," choked Billy, holding out both her hands. "It
sha'n't ache--they sha'n't echo!"

The man leaned forward eagerly, unbelievingly, and caught the hands in
his own.

"Billy, do you mean it? Then you will--come?"

"Yes, yes! I didn't know--I didn't think. I never supposed it was like
that! Of course I'll come!" And in a moment she was sobbing in his arms.

"Billy!" breathed William rapturously, as he touched his lips to her
forehead. "My own little Billy!"

It was a few minutes later, when Billy was more calm, that William
started to speak of Bertram. For a moment he had been tempted not to
mention his brother, now that his own point had been won so surprisingly
quick; but the new softness in Billy's face had encouraged him, and he
did not like to let the occasion pass when a word from him might do so
much for Bertram. His lips parted, but no words came--Billy herself had
begun to speak.

"I'm sure I don't know why I'm crying," she stammered, dabbing her eyes
with her round moist ball of a handerchief. "I hope when I'm your wife
I'll learn to be more self-controlled. But you know I am young, and
you'll have to be patient."

As once before at something Billy said, the world to William went
suddenly mad. His head swam dizzily, and his throat tightened so that
he could scarcely breathe. By sheer force of will he kept his arm about
Billy's shoulder, and he prayed that she might not know how numb and
cold it had grown. Even then he thought he could not have heard aright.

"Er--you said--" he questioned faintly.

"I say when I'm your wife I hope I'll learn to be more self-controlled,"
laughed Billy, nervously. "You see I just thought I ought to remind you
that I am young, and that you'll have to be patient."

William stammered something--a hurried something; he wondered afterward
what it was. That it must have been sa