cause of their joy appears to be
that now the Professor is, at last, in a position to marry."

"Well?"

"I have not seen him yet, but Miss Ann is full of it. She told me a
good many very touching things. I had no idea it had meant so much--to
him--all these years.--Boy dear?"

"Yes."

"I shall have to marry the Professor."

No answer.

"I don't know how to make you understand why I feel so bound to them.
They were very old friends of my father and mother. They were so good
to me through all the days of sorrow, when I was left alone. Miss Ann
is a great invalid, and very dependent upon love and care, and upon not
being thwarted in her little hopes and plans. She expects to come and
live in--in her brother's home. She knows I should love to have her.
And he has done so much for me, intellectually; so patiently kept my
mind alive, when it was inclined to stagnate; and working, when it
would have grown slack. He has given up hours of his valuable time to
me, every week, for years."

No answer.

Suddenly the moonlight, through an opening in the mulberry leaves, fell
upon his upturned face. She saw the anguish in his eyes. She turned
his head away, resting it against her knee, and clasped her hands upon
it.

"Boy dear; it is terribly hard for us, I know. In a most extraordinary
way--in a way I cannot understand--you have won my body. It yearns to
be with you; it aches if you suffer; it lives in your gladness; it
grows young in your youth. Nobody else has ever made me feel this; I
do not suppose anybody else ever will. But--oh Boy--bodies are not
everything. Bodies are the least of all. And I think--I _think_ the
Professor holds my mind. He won it long ago. I have grown much older
since then, and very tired of waiting. But I can look back to the time
when I used to think the greatest privilege in the world would be, to
be the--to marry the Professor."

She paused, and waited.

"Bodies count," said the Boy, in a low voice. "You'll jolly well find,
that bodies count."

It was such a relief to hear him speak at last.

"Oh, I know, Boy dear," she said. "But more between some, than others.
The Professor and I are united, primarily, on the mental and spiritual
plane. Being so sure of this, realizing the difference, makes it less
hard, in a way, to--to give up my Little Boy Blue. Boy dear, you must
help me; because I love you as I have never loved anybody else in this
world before; as I know