y own, and I sat thus until the room
began to lighten, watching her all the while.

It was strange that as I sat there I began to grow comforted. I looked
on her as mine. When I had kissed her hands I had forgotten the ring
upon her finger; and now, holding that hand in mine and running my
fingers round and round the circlet of gold, I was not troubled at all.
I could not think of her as any other man's. She was mine--Jacqueline.

Presently she stirred, her eyes opened, and she sat up. I placed a
pillow at her back. She gazed at me with apathy, but there was also
recognition in her look.

"Do you know me, Jacqueline?" I asked.

"Yes, Paul," she answered.

"Your friend?"

"My friend, Paul."

"Jacqueline, I am going to take you home," I said, hoping that she
would tell me something, but I dared ask her no more. I meant to take
her to Quebec and make inquiries there. Thus I hoped to learn
something of her, even if the sight of the town did not awaken her
memories.

"I am going to take you home, Jacqueline," I repeated.

"Yes, Paul," she answered in that docile manner of hers.

"It is lucky you have your furs, because the winter is cold where your
home is."

"Yes, Paul," she repeated as before, and a few more probings on my part
convinced me that she remembered nothing at all. Her mind was like a
person's newly awakened in a strange land. But this state brought with
it no fear, only a peaceful quietude and faith which was very touching.

"We have forgotten a lot of things that troubled us, haven't we, Paul?"
she asked me presently. "But we shall not care, since we have each
other for friends. And afterwards perhaps we shall pick them up again.
Do you not think so, Paul?"

"Yes, Jacqueline," I answered.

"If we remembered now the memory of them might make us unhappy," she
continued wistfully. "Do you not think so, Paul?"

"Yes, Jacqueline."

There was a faint and vague alarm in her eyes which made me glad for
her sake that she did not know.

"Now, Jacqueline," I said, "we shall have to begin to make ready for
our journey."

I had just remembered that the storage company which was to warehouse
my few belongings was to call that day. The van would probably be at
the house early in the morning, and it was essential that we should be
gone before it arrived.

Fortunately I had arranged to leave the door unlocked in case my
arrangements necessitated my early departure, and this was understood