er to let me
take it. She would have refused, but the child she was carrying on her
other arm was not very comfortable."

"There is a child?" said Derrick, with a smile. "I thought you had
embarked on a love-story."

"There is a child," assented Reggie, gravely. "And it _is_ a
love-story," he added, still more gravely. "But the love is all on my
side--at present."

"Oh, I see; a widow," said Derrick, not by any means lightly; for, to
your lover, love is a sacred subject, and he is full of subtle sympathy
for his kind.

"Very much a widow," said Reggie, with a touch of bitterness, and
looking straight before him. "She not only permitted me, after much
pressure, to carry the basket, but she allowed me to speak to her. She
said very little to me--angels are not obliged to talk, you know; it is
quite sufficient for them to exist. I carried the basket to the
cottage," he went on in a low voice and dreamily, "and she said, 'Thank
you.' When an angel says 'thank you'--But no doubt you have heard one
repeat the simple, magic word and know its effect on you. To-morrow I
shall be on the road at the same time, and, if Heaven is very kind to
me, I shall meet her, and again she will be carrying a basket. You think
I am very confiding, Green. Well, I feel that I've got to tell someone;
just as you feel that you want to tell me about your angel."

Derrick smiled, and coloured.

"There's something weird about you, Rex," he said. "You'll be a great
success as a novelist; you know human nature. Yes--it's strange!--I'm
longing to tell someone of the great happiness that has fallen to me."

"Tell away," said Rex. "Of course, I saw, the moment you came in sight,
that it was all right. You walked as if you were treading on asphodel,
and you carried your head as if you'd bought the whole world. I'm very
glad." He sighed and shook his head. "Yes, I'm glad, though I love her
myself--in a way. But I'm going to be a brother to her, and
therefore--if you'll permit me--to you, too. I hope you have made her
very happy."

"I hope so," responded Derrick; "and I hope to make her happy all her
life."

"You'll be married soon, I suppose?"

"Yes, if Celia will consent," replied Derrick, looking before him as if
he saw a vista of ecstatic years stretching into infinity. "I will marry
her as soon as she will have me, and I will take her to South America,
where I have work--and friends," he added, as he remembered Donna
Elvira.

"Of course, s