on
said was true. I can't earn a living for a wife. Now that I have you,
I can't take care of you--it is not much of a fellow that you've
married, Leila."

Oh, the little white face with the shining eyes!

Then out of the stillness came her cry, like a bird's note, triumphant.
"But I'm your wife now, and nothing can part us, Barry."

He caught up her hands in his. "Dearest, dearest--don't you see that I
can't ever tell them of our marriage until I can show them----"

"Show them what, Barry?"

"That I can take care of you."

"Do you mean that I mustn't even tell Dad, Barry?"

"You mustn't tell any one, not until I come back."

Every drop of blood was drained from her face.

"Until you come back. Are you going--away?"

"I promised Gordon to-day that I would."

She swayed a little, and he caught her. "I had to promise, Leila.
Don't you see? I haven't a penny, and I can't confess to them that
I've married you. I wanted to tell him that you were mine--that all
your sweetness and dearness belonged to me. I wanted to shout it to
the world. But I haven't a penny, and I'm proud, and I won't let
Gordon think I've been a--fool."

"But Dad would help us."

"Do you think I'd beg him to give me what he hasn't offered, Leila?
I've got to show them that I'm not a boy."

She struggled to bring herself out of the strange numbness which
gripped her. "If I could only tell Dad."

"Surely it can be our own sweet secret, dearest."

She laid her cheek against his arm, in a dumb gesture of surrender, and
her little bare left hand crept up and rested like a white rose petal
against the blackness of his coat.

He laid his own upon it. "Poor little hand without a wedding ring," he
said.

And now the numbness seemed to engulf her, to break----

"Hush, Leila, dear one."

But she could not hush. That very morning they had slipped the wedding
ring over a length of narrow blue ribbon, and Barry had tied it about
her neck. To-morrow, he had promised, she should wear it for all the
world to see.

But she was not to wear it. It must be hidden, as she had hidden it
all day above her heart.

"Leila, you are making it hard for me."

It was the man's cry of selfishness, but hearing it, she put her own
trouble aside. He needed her, and her king could do no wrong.

So she set herself to comfort him. In the month that was left to them
they would make the most of their happiness. Then perhaps she could
get Dad to