ght into those soft
gray depths, and as he looked, searching for something there, he knew
not what, troubled strangely by her nearness and the helpless surrender
of her fastened gaze, a great light burst upon him.

"It is you! it is you!" he said hoarsely, and crushing her in his arms,
he kissed her heavily on her yielding mouth.

For a moment she rested against him. The music, piercingly sweet, drove
away thought. Then she drew herself back, pushing him blindly from her.

"No, no, no!" she gasped, "it is Lady! You are mad--"

"Mad?" he said quickly. "I was never sane till now. When I think of what
I had to offer that dear child, when I realize to what a farce of love
I was sacrificing her--oh, Alice dearest, you are a woman; you must have
known!"

She raised her head; an unquenchable triumph smiled at him.

"I did know!" she cried exultantly. Suddenly her whole expression
changed, her head sank again.

"Oh, Lady, my child, my baby!" she moaned, all mother now, and
brokenhearted.

"You must never tell her, never!" she panted. "You will forget; you--I
will go away--"

"It is you who are mad, Alice," he said sternly. "Listen to me. For all
these weeks it has been your voice I have remembered, your face I
have seen in imagination in my house. It is you I have missed from
us three--never Lady. It is you I have tried to please and hoped to
satisfy--not Lady. Ever since you told me you would not spend the winter
with us I have been discontented. Why, Alice, I have never kissed her in
my life--as I have kissed you."

She grew red to the tips of her little ears, and threw him a quick
glance that tingled to his fingers' ends.

"You would not have me--oh, my dear, it is not possible!" he cried.

She burst into tears. "I don't know--I don't know!" she sobbed. "It will
break her heart! I don't understand her any more; once I could tell what
she would think, but not now."

"Hush! some one is coming," he warned her, and taking her arm he drew
her out through a great gap in the side of the little house, so that
they stood hidden by it.

"Then I will tell him to his face what I think of him!" said a young
man's voice, angry, determined, but shaking with disappointment. "To
hold a girl--"

"He does not hold me--I hold myself!" It was Lady's voice, low and
trembling. "It is all my fault, Jack. I bound myself before I knew
what--what a different thing it really was. I do love him--I love him
dearly, but not--not--No, n