stirring her
pulses, awakening imperceptibly once more the best in her. The twilight
of a thousand years seemed to slip from the world as she looked out at
it through eyes opening from a long, long sleep; the marble arch burned
rosy in the evening glow; a fairy haze hung over the enchanted avenue,
stretching away, away into the blue magic of the city of dreams.

"There is no use," she said under her breath; "I can't go back to Leila.
Stephen, the dreadful part of it is that I--I wish she were in Jericho!
I wish the whole world were in Ballyhoo, and you and I alone once more!"

Under their gay laughter quivered the undertone of excitement. Sylvia
said:

"I'd like to talk to you all alone. It won't do, of course; but I may
say what I'd like--mayn't I? What time is it? If I'm dining with you
we've got to have Leila for convention's sake, if not from motives of
sheer decency, which you and I seem to lack, Stephen."

"We lack decency," said Siward, "and we're proud of it. As for Leila, I
am going to arrange for her very simply but very beautifully. Plank will
take care of her. Sylvia! There's not a soul in town and we can be as
imprudent as we please."

"No, we can't. Agatha's at the Santa Regina. She came down with us."

"But we are not going to dine at the Santa Regina. We're going
where Agatha wouldn't intrude her colourless nose--to a thoroughly
unfashionable and selectly common resort overlooking the classic Harlem;
and we're going to whiz thither in Plank's car, and remain thither until
you yawn for mercy, whence we will return thence--"

"Stephen, you silly! I'm perfectly mad to go with you!"

"You'll be madder when you get there, if the table has not improved."

"Table! As though tables mattered on a night like this!" Then with
sudden self-reproach and quick solicitude: "Am I making you walk too
far? Wouldn't you like to go in now?"

"No, I'm not tired; I'm millions of years younger, and I'm as strong
as the nine gods of your friend Porsena. Besides, haven't I waited for
this?" and under his breath, fiercely, "Haven't I waited!" he repeated,
turning on her.

"Do--do you mean that as a reproach?" she asked, lowering her eyes.

"No. I knew you would not come on 'the first sunny day.'"

"Why did you think I would not come? Did you know me for the coward I
am?"

"I did not think you would come," he repeated, halting to rest on his
crutches. He stood, balanced, staring dreamily into the dim perspective;