if love might only come to
me like that."

"Like what?"

"Heaven-sent--never a doubt, never a speculation; just knowing and
believing--souls stripped bare of all pretence."

How splendid she was--how beautiful! He bent down to her. "Why
shouldn't it come to you?"

"Men don't love me that way. They admire and respect and then love.
But Jean? She's a moon maiden, luring them to--madness." She smiled
up at him.

"Captain Hewes says you are the supreme type--the perfect American."

"Yes, but he thinks of me as a type. Some day perhaps he will think of
me as a woman."

She brought the conversation back to Jean. "You need not let the
thought of her loneliness trouble you."

"You think then that I am going to lose her?"

"You have lost her already."

Sparks burned in the Doctor's eyes. "I don't believe it. She has
known him a few days--and I've given her my whole life."

"'Forsaking all others,'" murmured Drusilla.

"Yet she loves me."

"It isn't that she loves you less--she loves him more."

"Don't," he lifted his hand. "I am not sure that I can stand it."

"It makes your way clear. That's why I have said it. There will be
nothing now to keep you back from France."

Once upon a time she had said to Derry, "I can feel things, and I can
make others feel." She had, perhaps, tonight, been a little cruel, but
she had been cruel with a purpose.

All the way home Doctor McKenzie was very silent. When he kissed his
daughter before she went upstairs, he held her close and smoothed her
hair, but not a word did he say of the thing which had come to him.

He asked Emily, however, to wait a moment. "I have a letter to answer.
I should like your advice."

Wondering a little, she sat down by the fire. The peacocky scarf gave
out glittering lights of blue and green. She was tired and there were
shadows under her eyes.

He came at once to his proposition. "I am thinking of going to France,
Emily. If I do, can you stay with Jean?"

She turned her startled gaze upon him. "To France? Why?"

He told her. "They have been writing to me for weeks, and now the
moment for my decision has come. I haven't said anything to Jean. But
she won't keep me back. You know how she feels. But unless you can
come, I can't leave her."

"I should have to be all day in my shop."

"I know, but you could be here in the evening and at night, and she
could, of course, be with you in the shop, she likes that--and