he throb in his voice as he spoke that last word.

He had to go back that night. "Well?" he asked gently, as they neared
her hotel.

"I'll be down in a couple of days," replied Katie, not steadily.

"And you'll be there a little while, won't you," he asked wistfully,
"before you go--you don't know where?"

"Yes," she said, turning her eyes upon him for just an instant, "a little
while--before I go--I don't know where."

But though she was going--she didn't know where--though she was giving
up--seemed conquered--through all the uncertainty and the sadness there
surged a strange new joy in their hearts as, very slowly, they walked
that final block.

At the door, after a moment's full silence, she held out her hand. "And
you'll be down there--mending boats?"

He nodded, his eyes going where words had not ventured.

"And you'll--come and see me?" she asked shyly. "You don't mean, do
you,"--looking away, as if with scarcely the courage to say it--"that I'm
to 'stop'--everything?"

"No, Katie," he said, and his voice was shaking, "I think you must know I
do not mean you are to--stop everything."

As they lingered for a final moment, they were alone--far out in the
sweet wild new places of the spirit; and all that man had ever yearned
for, all joy that had been given and all joy denied seemed as a rich
sea--fathomless sea--swelling just beneath that sweet wild new thing that
had fluttered to consciousness in their hearts.

CHAPTER XXVIII

The new life in her heart gave her new courage that night to look out at
life. She faced what before that she had evaded consciously facing.

Perhaps they would not find Ann at all. Perhaps Ann had given up--as they
were giving up. Perhaps Ann was not there to be found.

It was her fight against that fear had kept her so much in the crowds.
Ann was there. She had only to find her. Leaving the crowds seemed to be
admitting that Ann was not in them; for if she really felt she was in
them, surely she would not consent to leaving them.

That idea of Ann's not being there was as a shadow which had from time to
time crept beside her. In the crowds she lost it. There were so many in
the crowds. Ann, too, was in the crowds. She had only to stay in them and
she must find her.

Now she was leaving them; and it was he who understood the crowds was
telling her to leave them. Did _he_ think she was not there? Why had she
not had the courage to press it? There was so much they sh