and silent, looking at the
white face upon her knees. With all the impatience wiped out, it was
a fine face, at once strong and sweet.

"Richard," said Alicia, "Richard, if I had been killed, and you
begged and prayed me from your breaking heart to listen to you, to
understand that you'd cared for me, only me, all along, _somehow_
I'd manage to let you know I understood. Richard, listen to me! Open
your eyes, Richard. Please, please, Richard, open your eyes!"

Her voice was so piteous that I fell to weeping. And, by the mercy
of God, Richard opened his eyes and stared with blue blankness
straight into Alicia's quivering, anguished face.

"Richard," said she, bending down to him, "my dear, dear love, keep
your eyes open just a little longer, until I can make you
understand. Oh, Richard, I cared! Indeed, indeed, I cared!"

The blue stare never wavered. It gathered intensity.

"Don't, don't look at me like that, Richard!" cried Alicia,
beginning to sob wildly. "Don't--don't look so--so _angelic_, dear.
Look like your own self at me, Richard! Oh, darling, for our dear
God's mercy's sake, please, please try to look bad-tempered just
once more!"

His pale lips twitched curiously. He sighed. Then he murmured
something that sounded like "not sure."

"Not sure?" wept Alicia. "Oh, my heart, my heart!"

"I think--could die in peace--say 'I love you, Richard,'" murmured
the doctor.

"Oh, I do, I do love you, Richard--_frightfully_!" sobbed Alicia. "I
love you with all my heart!"

The corpse sat up, and for a dead man he showed considerable life.
Painfully he rose, and stood staggering on his feet, big, pale,
shaken, with a bump the size of an egg on the side of his head, but
with such shining blue eyes! He put out a big hand and lifted
Alicia from the ground.

"Leetchy," said Doctor Geddes, "if you ever take back what you've
said I shall be sorry I wasn't killed. But I don't mind staying
alive if you'll keep on loving me. If I stay alive, will you marry
me, Leetchy?"

"If you don't, I can't m-m-marry any-anybody at all!" wailed Alicia.

"Amen!" said the doctor. "Now stop crying, and put your hand into my
pocket, and you'll find something that's been owing you this long
time, Leetchy."

Alicia blinked, and rubbed her eyes, then slipped her hand into his
breast pocket and drew forth a small, square, satin-lined box; an
inviting box.

"Richard!" she exclaimed, "why, Richard!" Then: "Of all the
impudence!" cried A