ough her hair, turning it
to luminous gold. Her arm was bare to the elbow, and the warm fragrance of
her nearness overspread him. The touch thrilled him to the depths, and he
flushed to his upstanding Struwel Peter hair. He tried to say something--he
knew not what; but his throat was smitten with sudden dryness. It seemed to
him that he had sat there, for the best part of an hour, tongue-tied,
looking stupidly at the confluence of the blue veins on her arm, longing to
tell her that his senses swam with the temptation of her touch and the rise
and fall of her bosom, through the great love he had for her, and yet
terror-stricken lest she might discover his secret, and punish his audacity
according to the summary methods of Juno, Diana, and other offended
goddesses whom mortals dared to love. It could only have been a few
seconds, for he heard her voice in his ears, at first faint and then
gathering distinctness, continuing in almost the same breath as her
question.

"Would you? Do you know the greatest pleasure you could give me? It would
be to become my brother--my real brother."

He turned bewildered eyes upon her.

"Your brother?"

She laughed, half impatiently, half gaily, gave his hand a final tap and
rose. He stood, too, mechanically.

"I think you're the obtusest man I've ever met. Anyone else would have
guessed long ago. Don't you see, you dear, foolish thing"--she laid her
hands on his shoulders and looked with agonizing deliciousness into his
face--"don't you see that you want a wife to save you from omelettes that
you have to use as kettle-holders, and to give you a sense of
responsibility? And don't you see that Emmy, who is never happier than
when--oh!" she broke off impatiently, "don't you see?"

He had built for himself no card house of illusion, so it did not come
toppling down with dismaying clatter. But all the same he felt as if her
kind hands had turned death cold and were wringing his heart. He took them
from his shoulders, and, not unpicturesquely, kissed her finger-tips. Then
he dropped them and walked to the fire and, with his back to the room,
leaned on the mantelpiece. A little china dog fell with a crash into the
fender.

"Oh, I'm so sorry--" he began piteously.

"Never mind," said Zora, helping him to pick up the pieces. "A man who can
kiss a woman's hands like that is at liberty to clear the whole house of
gimcrackery."

"You are a very gracious lady. I said so long ago," replied Se