s.

He went straight to her. And Mrs. Weatherstone did not lay it up against
him that he had but the briefest of words for his hostess.

"Will you come?" he said. "May I take you home--now?"

She went with him, without a word, and they walked slowly home, by far
outlying paths, and long waits on rose-bowered seats they knew.

The moon filled all the world with tender light and the orange blossoms
flooded the still air with sweetness.

"Dear," said he, "I have been a proud fool--I am yet--but I have come to
see a little clearer. I do not approve of your work--I cannot approve
of it--but will you forgive me for that and marry me? I cannot live any
longer without you?"

"Of course I will," said Diantha.

CHAPTER XIV. AND HEAVEN BESIDE.

They were married while the flowers were knee-deep over the sunny slopes
and mesas, and the canyons gulfs of color and fragrance, and went for
their first moon together to a far high mountain valley hidden among
wooded peaks, with a clear lake for its central jewel.

A month of heaven; while wave on wave of perfect rest and
world-forgetting oblivion rolled over both their hearts.

They swam together in the dawn-flushed lake, seeing the morning mists
float up from the silver surface, breaking the still reflection of thick
trees and rosy clouds, rejoicing in the level shafts of forest filtered
sunlight. They played and ran like children, rejoiced over their picnic
meals; lay flat among the crowding flowers and slept under the tender
starlight.

"I don't see," said her lover, "but that my strenuous Amazon is just as
much a woman as--as any woman!"

"Who ever said I wasn't?" quoth Diantha demurely.

A month of perfect happiness. It was so short it seemed but a moment;
so long in its rich perfection that they both agreed if life brought no
further joy this was Enough.

Then they came down from the mountains and began living.

*****

Day service is not so easily arranged on a ranch some miles from town.
They tried it for a while, the new runabout car bringing out a girl in
the morning early, and taking Diantha in to her office.

But motor cars are not infallible; and if it met with any accident there
was delay at both ends, and more or less friction.

Then Diantha engaged a first-class Oriental gentleman, well recommended
by the "vegetable Chinaman," on their own place. This was extremely
satisfactory; he did the work well, and was in all ways reliable;
but there ar