ngly
rich.

"How are you?" he asked anxiously.

"Perfectly all right."

"Sure?"

Valerie nodded, smiling.

"I wasn't even tired the next day," she said. "Were your arms very
stiff?"

"Only for a day or two."

"And Patch?"

"As right as rain."

"Will you be free on Sunday?" said Valerie.

"From two o'clock on."

"Will you come to Bell Hammer?"

"I will," said Anthony.

"I'll come to meet you with the two-seater. To-morrow I'm going away.
Aunt Harriet has to go to London. Have--have you been back ... since?"

"To your window?"

"To our window," said Valerie.

Anthony nodded.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I--I can't keep away."

It was true. The place fascinated him. Tremendous happenings had made
it a shrine. Already worshipful as Valerie's bower, the ledge was
freshly consecrate to two most excellent saints--Love Confessed and
Life Triumphant.

"I thought you had," said Valerie. "I saw your footsteps. And--oh,
please don't go so close to the edge, Anthony. Promise me you won't.
It--it frightens me so."

Love lent the words an earnestness which there was no mistaking. My
lady leaned forward, with her hand gripping the woodwork. There was a
strained, pleading look upon the beautiful face, the proud lips
humbling themselves, the glorious eyes beggars--Royalty upon its knees.

Quite naturally, Anthony's heart answered her.

"I promise, sweet," he said.

The vocative transfigured the lady. Anthony found himself mirrored in
two dew-burning stars. To deck her favourite, Nature had robbed the
firmament. To see such larceny, it is not surprising that the round
world stood still....

With a supreme effort Anthony pulled himself together.

"Patch is too funny," he said. "He'll come as far as the bank--you
know, below the thicket--and not a step farther. He just stands there
and wags his tail apologetically. And there at the foot of the bank he
waits until I return."

Valerie laughed merrily.

"Poor little dog," she said. "It was enough to----"

"I say, Val, did I leave my flask in the car?"

The two had been too much absorbed to observe the return of the
fresh-faced youngster, and the latter's words cut their communion
short, much as the sudden rasp of curtain-rings scatters the rear of
slumber. It was providential that the world was moving again. The
suspension of perpetual motion would have been bound to excite remark.
As it was, the new-comer was upon the very edge of s