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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Glory of Youth, by Temple Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Glory of Youth
+
+Author: Temple Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Henry Hutt
+             C. S. Corson
+
+Release Date: August 10, 2007 [EBook #22292]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLORY OF YOUTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Paul Stephen and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HE IMPRISONED THE SMALL HAND]
+
+
+GLORY OF
+YOUTH
+
+BY
+TEMPLE BAILEY
+
+AUTHOR OF
+CONTRARY MARY
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+HENRY HUTT and C. S. CORSON
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+[Illustration: Publishers mark]
+
+First printing, August, 1913 Second printing, February, 1916 Third
+printing February, 1917 Fourth printing August, 1919
+
+Manufacturing Plant
+
+Camden, N. J.
+
+
+
+
+The Glory of Youth
+
+
+
+
+   _To
+My Mother_
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+    I. BETTINA                                        9
+
+   II. IN THE SHADOWY ROOM                           21
+
+  III. IN WHICH DIANA REAPS                          36
+
+   IV. WHITE LILACS                                  51
+
+    V. IN WHICH BETTINA DANCES                       64
+
+   VI. "FOR EVERY MAN THERE IS JUST ONE WOMAN"       80
+
+  VII. HARBOR LIGHT                                  94
+
+ VIII. THE EMPTY HOUSE                              105
+
+   IX. THE GOLDEN AGE                               116
+
+    X. STORM SIGNALS                                127
+
+   XI. THE WHITE MAIDEN                             141
+
+  XII. YOUTH AND BEAUTY                             155
+
+ XIII. HER LETTER TO ANTHONY                        170
+
+  XIV. THE LITTLE SILVER RING                       185
+
+   XV. IN WHICH BETTINA FLIES                       199
+
+  XVI. VOICES IN THE DARK                           213
+
+ XVII. GLORY OF YOUTH                               227
+
+XVIII. PENANCE                                      242
+
+  XIX. HER FATHER'S RING                            257
+
+   XX. THE "GRAY GULL"                              272
+
+  XXI. BROKEN WINGS                                 285
+
+ XXII. THE ENCHANTED FOREST                         300
+
+XXIII. THE PROCESSION OF PRETTY LADIES              316
+
+ XXIV. THE AFTERGLOW                                323
+
+
+
+
+Glory of Youth
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BETTINA
+
+
+The girl knelt on the floor, feverishly packing a shabby little trunk.
+
+Outside was a streaming April storm, and the rain, rushing against the
+square, small-paned windows, shut out the view of the sea, shut out the
+light, and finally brought such darkness that the girl stood up with a
+sigh, brushed off her black dress with thin white hands, and groped her
+way to the door.
+
+Beyond the door was the blackness of an upper hall in a tall century-old
+house. A spiral stairway descended into a well of gloom. An ancient iron
+lantern, attached to a chain, hung from the low ceiling.
+
+The girl lighted the lantern, and the faint illumination made deeper the
+shadows below.
+
+And from the shadows came a man's voice.
+
+"May I come up?"
+
+As the girl bent over the railing, the glow of the lantern made of her
+hair a shining halo. "Oh," she cried, radiantly, "I'm so glad you've
+come. I--I was afraid----"
+
+The thunder rolled, the waves pounded on the rocks, and the darkness
+grew more dense, but now the girl did not heed, for what mattered a mere
+storm, when, ascending the stairs, was one who knew fear neither of life
+nor of death, nor of the things which come after death?
+
+When at last her visitor emerged from the gloom, he showed himself
+beyond youthful years, with hair slightly touched with gray, not tall,
+but of a commanding presence, with clear, keen blue eyes, and with
+cheeks which were tanned by out-of-door exercise, and reddened by the
+prevailing weather.
+
+"I just had to come," he said, as he took her hand. "I knew you'd be
+frightened."
+
+"Yes," she said, "Miss Matthews is at school, and I am alone----"
+
+"And unhappy?"
+
+Her lips quivered, but she drew her hand from his, and went on into the
+shabby room, where she lighted a candle in a brass holder, and touched a
+match to a fire which was laid in the blackened brick fireplace.
+
+The doctor's quick eye noted the preparations for departure.
+
+"What does that mean?" he asked, and pointed to the trunk.
+
+"I--I am going away----"
+
+"Away?"
+
+"Yes," nervously; "I--I can't stay here, doctor."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh," tremulously, "it was all right when I had mother, because she was
+so sick that I was too busy to realize how deadly lonely it was here. I
+knew she needed the sea air, and she could get it better in the top of
+this old house than anywhere else. But now that she's gone--I can't
+stand it. I'm young, and Miss Matthews is away all day teaching--and
+when she comes home at night we have nothing in common, and there's the
+money left from the insurance--and so--I'm going away."
+
+He looked at her, with her red-gold hair in high relief against the worn
+leather of the chair in which she sat, at the flower-like face, the
+slender figure, the tiny feet in childish strapped slippers.
+
+"You aren't fit to fight the world," he said; "you aren't fit."
+
+"Perhaps it won't be such a fight," she said. "I could get something to
+do in the city, and----"
+
+He shook his head. "You don't know--you can't know----" Then he broke
+off to ask, "What would you do with your furniture?"
+
+"Miss Matthews would be glad to take the rooms just as they are. She was
+delighted when you asked her to stay with me after mother died. She
+loves our old things, the mahogany and the banjo clock, and the
+embroidered peacocks, and the Venetian heirlooms that belonged to Dad's
+family. But I hate them."
+
+"Hate them--why?"
+
+"Because, oh, you know, because Dad treated mother so dreadfully. He
+broke her heart."
+
+His practiced eye saw that she was speaking tensely.
+
+"I wish you'd get me a cup of tea," he said, suddenly. "I'm just from
+the sanatorium. I operated on a bad case--and, well, that's sufficient
+excuse, isn't it, for me to want to drink a cup of tea with you?"
+
+She was busy in a moment with her hospitality.
+
+"Oh, why didn't you tell me? And you're wet." Her hand touched his coat
+lightly as she passed him.
+
+"The rain came so suddenly that I couldn't get the window of my car
+closed; it's an awful storm.
+
+"And now," he said, when she had brought the tea on an old Sheffield
+tray, and had set it on a little folding table which he placed between
+them on the hearth, "and now let's talk about it."
+
+"Please don't try to make me stay----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because, oh, because you can't know what I suffer here; it isn't just
+because I've lost mother, but the people--they all know about her and
+about Dad, and they aren't nice to me."
+
+"My dear child!"
+
+"Perhaps it's because father was a singer and an Italian, and mother
+came of good old Puritan stock. They seem to think she lowered herself
+by marrying him. They can't understand that though he was unkind to her,
+he belonged to an aristocratic Venetian family----"
+
+"It's from those wonderful women of Venice, then, that you get that
+hair. Do you remember Browning's:
+
+    "'Dear dead women, with such hair, too--what's become of all the gold
+      Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.'"
+
+There was no response to his thought in her young eyes.
+
+"I've never read Browning," she said, negligently, "and I hate to think
+of 'dear dead women.' I want to think of live things, of bright things,
+of gay things. It seems sometimes as if I should die here among the
+shadows."
+
+She was sobbing now, with her head on the table.
+
+"Bettina," the doctor bent over her, "poor child, poor little child."
+
+"Please let me go," she whispered.
+
+"I can't keep you, of course. I wish I knew what to do. I wish Diana
+were here."
+
+"Diana?"
+
+"I forgot that you did not know her. She has been away for two years.
+She's rather wonderful, Bettina."
+
+The girl raised her head. The man was gazing straight into the fire. All
+the eager light that had made his face seem young had gone, and he
+looked worn and tired. Bettina had no worldly intuitions to teach her
+the reason for the change a woman's name had wrought, and so absorbed
+was she in her own trouble that she viewed the transformation with
+unseeing eyes.
+
+"What could she do if she were here?" she asked with childish
+directness.
+
+"She would find some way out of it--she is very wise." He spoke with
+some hesitation, as a man speaks who holds a subject sacred. "She has
+had to decide things for herself all her life--her father and mother
+died when she was a little girl; now she is over thirty and the mistress
+of a large fortune. She spends her winters in the city and her summers
+down here by the sea--but for the past two years she has been staying in
+Europe with a widowed friend who was a schoolmate of hers in Berlin."
+
+"When is she coming back?"
+
+Out of a long silence, he answered, "I am not sure that she will come
+back. Her engagement was announced last fall--to a German, Ulric Van
+Rosen--she is to be married in June."
+
+The fact, to him so pregnant of woeful possibilities, meant little to
+Bettina.
+
+"Of course if she's not here, she can't do anything--and anyhow most
+people don't care to do practical things to help, do they?"
+
+She looked so childish, so appealing, so altogether exquisite and young
+in her black-robed slenderness, that he answered her as he would have
+answered a child.
+
+"It's too bad that the world should hurt you."
+
+"But I'm going to do wonderful things in the city."
+
+"Wonderful things--poor little girl----"
+
+As he brought his eyes back from the fire to her face, he seemed to
+bring his thoughts back from an uneasy reverie.
+
+"You ought," he said, "to marry----"
+
+The color flamed into the girl's cheeks. "Mother was always saying that,
+in those last days. But I hated to have her; it seemed so dreadful to
+talk of marriage--without love. I know she didn't mean it that way, poor
+darling! She married for love and her life was such a failure. But I
+couldn't--not just to get married, could I--not just to have some one
+take care of me?"
+
+He stood up, and thrust his hands in his pockets. "No," he agreed
+bluffly, "you couldn't, of course."
+
+"And there's never been any one in love with me," was her naive
+confession, "and I've never been in love, not really----"
+
+He was looking down at her with smiling eyes. "There's plenty of time."
+
+"Yes--that's what I always told mother--but she dreaded to think of
+me--alone."
+
+The eager, dying woman had said the same thing to the doctor, and it had
+seemed to him, sometimes, that her burning eyes had begged of him a
+favor which he could not grant.
+
+For there had always been--Diana!
+
+He straightened his shoulders. "I'm going to ask you to stay here," he
+said, "instead of going to the city. I haven't any real right to keep
+you, for I'm not legally your guardian, but I promised your mother to
+look after you. I can find work for you. We need some one at the
+sanatorium to look after the office----"
+
+For a moment she set her will against his. "But I'd rather go to the
+city."
+
+He put his strong hands on her shoulders. "Little child, look at me," he
+said, and when she flashed up at him a startled glance, he went on,
+gently, "Your mother wanted me to take care of you--to keep you from
+harm. In the city you'll be too far away. I want you to stay here. Will
+you?"
+
+And presently she whispered, "I will stay."
+
+Outside the rain was rushing and the wind was blowing, and plain little
+Miss Matthews battled with the storm. Miss Matthews, who, every day in
+the year, taught a class of tumultuous children, and whose life dealt
+always with the commonplace. And it was plain little Miss Matthews who,
+having weathered the storm and climbed the winding stairs, came in,
+rain-coated and soft-hatted, to find by the fire the doctor drawing on
+his gloves and Bettina hovering about him like a gold-tipped butterfly.
+
+"It's a dreadful storm," said Miss Matthews, superfluously, as Bettina
+went to get boiling water. "There's a young man down-stairs who wants to
+speak to you, Dr. Blake. He said that he couldn't find you at the
+sanatorium. He saw your car in front of the house and knew you were
+here. But the bell wouldn't ring, and so he waited. I told him the bell
+was broken and that you'd come down at once. He's hurt his hand."
+
+"They would have fixed him up at the sanatorium."
+
+"He said he wanted you, and nobody else, and that he came into the hall
+because he was like a pussy cat and hated the rain. He is a queer
+looking creature in a leather cap and leather leggins."
+
+The doctor gave an amused laugh. "That's Justin Ford," he said; "the
+pussy-cat speech sounds like him, and he wears the leather costume when
+he flies."
+
+Bettina, coming back with fresh tea for Miss Matthews, asked, "How does
+he fly?"
+
+"In an aeroplane. He's to try out his hydro-aeroplane to-morrow. He's
+probably been at work on the machinery and hurt his hand."
+
+Bettina sparkled. "Think of a man who can fly," she said. "Doesn't it
+sound incredible?"
+
+"It's the most marvelous thing in the world," said the big-hearted
+surgeon, not knowing that he, as a man of healing, was more marvelous,
+for he had to do with the mechanics of flesh and blood, while Justin had
+to do only with steel and aluminum and canvas, which are, at best,
+unimportant things when compared with nerves and ligaments and bones.
+
+"Would you mind if Ford came up?" the doctor asked. "I've got to go
+straight to my old man with the pneumonia after I leave here, and I
+could look at his hand."
+
+Bettina shivered. "Shall I have to look at it?" she asked in a little
+voice.
+
+He laughed. "Of course not. You can go in the other room."
+
+But when the young man, who had answered the doctors call, entered, she
+did not go, for the face which was framed by the leather cap was that of
+a youth whose beauty matched her own, and whose mocking eyes, as he
+acknowledged the introduction, seemed to beat against the door of her
+maiden heart and demand admission.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IN THE SHADOWY ROOM
+
+
+The injury to Justin's hand proved to be one of strain and sprain.
+
+"A bandage for a few days," the doctor pronounced, "and then a little
+carefulness, and you'll be all right."
+
+Justin lingered. The little fire was like a heart of gold in the shadowy
+room. Plain little Miss Matthews sipped her tea, with her feet on the
+fender. Bettina, during the doctor's examination of Justin's hand, had
+seated herself in her low chair on the hearth, and now her eyes were
+fixed steadily on the flames.
+
+"It's a shivery, shaky sort of day," said Justin, surveying the teapot
+longingly, and Anthony laughed. "He wants his tea, Bettina," he said,
+"and a place by your fire. It's another of his pussy-cat traits--so if
+you'll be good to him, I'll have another cup, and he shall tell us about
+his hydro-aeroplane."
+
+Justin, standing in front of the fire, was like a young god fresh from
+Olympus. His nose was straight, his mocking eyes a golden-brown, and,
+with his cap off, his upstanding shock of hair showed glittering lights.
+In deference to the prevailing fashion, his fair little mustache was
+slightly upturned at the corners. He had doffed his rain coat, and
+appeared in a brown Norfolk suit with leather leggins that reached his
+knees.
+
+"I'm afraid I've intruded upon your hospitality," he said to Bettina, as
+she handed him a steaming cup, "but I'm always falling into pleasant
+things--and I haven't the will power to get out when I should, truly I
+haven't. But it isn't my fault--it's just a part of my pussy-cat
+inheritance."
+
+"He can afford to say such things," Anthony remarked; "he's really more
+like a bird than a pussy cat. You should see him up in the air."
+
+Justin's eyes flashed. "You should see me coming down on the water after
+a flight. By Jove, Anthony, that's the most wonderful little machine.
+I've called her 'The Gray Gull' because she not only flies but
+swims--cuts through the water like a motor boat."
+
+As he talked his eyes were on Bettina. "You beauty, you beauty," was
+the thought which thrilled him.
+
+When, at last, he stood up, he apologized somewhat formally. "I've
+stayed too long," he said, "but Anthony must make my excuses. I was down
+there in Purgatory--and he showed me--Paradise."
+
+The doctor looked at him sharply. He knew Justin as a man of the
+world--gay, irresponsible--and Bettina had no one to watch over her.
+
+"I'll take you as far as the shops," he said, crisply, "and then I must
+get at once to my old man with the pneumonia."
+
+As the two men rode away in the doctor's small covered car, Justin
+asked, "Where did you discover her?" Anthony, his eyes fixed on the
+muddy road ahead of them, gave a brief outline: "Professionally. The
+mother died in those rooms. The girl is alone, except for Miss Matthews
+and the old Lane sisters who own the house and live in the lower part. I
+have constituted myself a sort of guardian for Bettina--the mother
+requested it, and I couldn't refuse."
+
+"I see." Justin asked no more questions, but settled himself back in a
+cushioned corner, and as the two men rode on in silence, their thoughts
+were centered on the single vision of a shadowy room, and of a slender
+golden-haired, black-robed figure against a background of glowing flame.
+
+All that night and the next day the doctor battled with Death, and came
+out triumphant. By four o'clock in the afternoon the old man with
+pneumonia showed signs of holding his own.
+
+Worn out, Anthony drove back toward the sanatorium. The rain was over,
+but a heavy fog had rolled in, so that the doctor's little car seemed to
+float in a sea of cloud. Now and then another car passed him,
+specter-like amid the grayness. Silent figures, magnified by the mist,
+came and went like shadow pictures on a screen. From the far distance
+sounded the incessant moan of fog-horns.
+
+Anthony stopped his car in front of a small shop, whose lights struggled
+faintly against the gloom.
+
+Crossing the threshold, he went from a world of dampness and chill into
+the warmth and cheer of an old-fashioned fish house.
+
+For fifty years there had been no change in Lillibridge's. The floor of
+the main room was bare and clean, and, in the middle, a round black
+stove radiated comfort on cold days. Along one side of the room ran
+three stalls, in which were placed tables for such patrons as might
+desire partial privacy. On the spick and span counter were set forth
+various condiments and plates of crackers. A card, tacked up on the
+wall, tempted the appetite with its list of sea foods.
+
+Anthony wanted nothing to eat. He ordered coffee, and went into one of
+the stalls to drink it.
+
+But a man at one of the tables in the main part of the room wanted more
+than coffee. He was a little man in a blue reefer, but he had,
+evidently, more than a little appetite. As Anthony sat down, he was just
+finishing a bowl of chowder, and was gazing with eyes of hungry
+appreciation upon various dishes of fried fish and fried potatoes, of
+hot rolls and pickles which were being set before him.
+
+"You'd better have some, doctor," was his hoarse invitation.
+
+"Too tired," said Anthony. "I'll wait till I've had a bath and rub-down
+before I eat----"
+
+"What you need," said the little man, between large mouthfuls, "is a
+good day's fishin'. You come out to-morrow morning, and we'll catch some
+cod."
+
+The doctor's tired eyes brightened. "There's nothing that I'd like
+better, captain, but I've got an old man ill of pneumonia, and there's
+a girl with appendicitis."
+
+"There you go," said the little man; "if it wasn't a girl with
+appendicitis, it would be a kid with the colic, or a lady with a claim
+to heart trouble. What you've got to do, doctor, is to cut it all out
+and come with me."
+
+Anthony shook his head. "Suppose some one had said to you when you
+sailed the seas that you could leave the ship----?"
+
+"I shouldn't have left," said the little man, "but I didn't have such a
+look as you've got in your eyes. What you need is a good night's sleep,
+and a day's fishin'. And you need it now."
+
+Having eaten presently his last morsel, he ordered a piece of pie.
+"There's nothing like sea air to blow your brains clear," he stated.
+"And when this fog lifts, it'll be fine fishin' weather."
+
+Again the doctor shook his head. "I'd like it, more than a little, but
+I've got to stick to my post."
+
+Captain Stubbs began on his pie, and remarked, "The trouble with you is
+that you're mixed up with too many wimmen."
+
+Anthony's head went up. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Wimmen," said the little captain, "are bad enough anyhow. But when you
+have to handle a lot of wimmen with nerves, then the Lord help you."
+
+He said it so solemnly that Anthony threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"Now, up at that sannytarium of yours," said the captain, "there's about
+ten of them that need to be dipped into the good salt sea and hung up in
+the sun to dry, and that's all they need, no coddling and medicine and
+operations--but just a cold shock and a warm-up--and a day's fishin'."
+
+And now Anthony did not laugh. "By Jove," he said, "I believe you're
+right. I'm going to try some personally conducted parties, and you shall
+take them out, captain----"
+
+"Me----?" the captain demanded, incredulously. "Me take those wimmen out
+fishin'?"
+
+Anthony nodded. "Yes, once a week. Is it a bargain?"
+
+The captain stood up. "No, it ain't," he said, firmly. "I'll take you
+and gladly. But not any of that nervous bunch."
+
+He settled his cap firmly on his head, and went toward the door. Then he
+turned. "Some day," he said, "I'm going to ask that Betty child to go
+out in my boat."
+
+"Bettina?" Anthony's mind went swiftly to the shadowed room.
+
+"Yes. She's lonesome, and so was her mother. I used to take fish up to
+them, and I showed the Betty child how to make chowder."
+
+"She told me," said Anthony. "You're one of her best friends, captain."
+
+"Well, goodness only knows she needs friends," said the little captain,
+adding with a significant emphasis which escaped the preoccupied
+Anthony, "She needs somebody to take care of her."
+
+Receiving no response, the little man lighted his pipe, buttoned his
+coat, and, remarking genially, "Well, you let me know about that day's
+fishin'," he steamed out.
+
+After his departure Anthony sat for some time in the deserted room. He
+knew that rest and refreshment were waiting for him and he knew that he
+needed them, but his mind was weighed down by the problem of that
+helpless child in the old house. All through the night as he had battled
+for the life of his patient, he had thought of her, who must battle with
+the world. He could get her work, of course, but he shrank from the
+thought of her pale loveliness set to sordid uses.
+
+With a sudden gesture of resolution, he stood up and drew on his gloves.
+
+Ten minutes later he was climbing the winding stairway, where the iron
+lantern again illumined the darkness.
+
+There had been no response to his call from below, and when he reached
+the upper landing he found the door shut. He knocked and presently
+Bettina came. He saw at a glance that she had been crying.
+
+"I can stay only a minute," he said. "I haven't had much sleep since I
+saw you yesterday."
+
+"I'll make you some tea," she offered, but he stopped her with a quick,
+"No, no,--I've just had coffee, and I must get home."
+
+They sat down, somewhat stiffly, on opposite sides of the hearth.
+
+"What made you cry?" he asked, with his keen eyes on her downcast face.
+
+"Everything--the rain yesterday--the fog to-day. I wish the sun would
+shine--I wish--I were--dead----"
+
+With a sharp exclamation, he stood up. "You're too young to say such
+things--there's all of life before you."
+
+"Yes," she said dully, "there's all of life----"
+
+To him she was a most appealing figure. Her weakness seemed to stand out
+against the background of his strength. Suddenly he held out his hands
+to her. "Come here, Betty child," he said, using, unconsciously, the
+little captain's name for her, "come here."
+
+Some new note in his voice made her cheeks flame, but she obeyed him. He
+took both of her hands in his. "I've been thinking of you, and your
+future. Somehow I can't see you, a little slip of a thing like you,
+being beaten and bruised by the hard things of life. The world is cruel
+and you are so--sweet. You need some one to take care of you----"
+
+"Yes," she whispered; "but there isn't any one."
+
+"Except me. And I'm such an old fellow--years too old for you. But I'm
+alone, and you're alone. Could I make you happy, Betty child?"
+
+She stared at him, all the bright color gone from her face.
+
+"Why, how?" Her voice fluttered and died.
+
+"As my wife. There's the big house on the rocks that I am building."
+
+He faltered. The great house had been built for Diana, on a sudden
+hopeful impulse that when it was finished she would consent to be its
+mistress.
+
+"There's the big house," he went on, after a moment, "and there's money
+enough and to spare. Not that I want you to marry me for that, but I
+think I could comfort you in your loneliness, Bettina."
+
+In her secluded girlhood there had been no opportunity for masculine
+adoration; hence there seemed nothing lacking when this man of men,
+whose coming during her mother's illness had made the one bright spot in
+her day, whose sympathy had comforted her in her sorrow, whose
+friendship had sustained her in the months which had followed her great
+loss, when he spoke of marriage with never a word of love.
+
+"But I'm not wise enough or good enough," she said, with a quick catch
+of her breath.
+
+He drew her to him, holding her gently.
+
+"Would you like," he asked, "would you like to think that all your life
+I should take care of you?"
+
+She lay quietly, not answering for a while, then she whispered, "Do you
+really want me?"
+
+Perhaps his arm relaxed a little, but his voice was very steady. "I
+really want to make you happy."
+
+"And you'll let me love you with all my heart?" Her eyes were hidden.
+
+He put his hand against the softness of her hair, turning her face up
+toward him. "I shall hope that you may love me with all your heart, and
+that I may be worthy of it."
+
+Her hand crept up and touched his cheek. "Kiss me," she whispered, like
+a child.
+
+He would have been less than a man if his heart had not leaped a little,
+if he had not responded to the love call of this wistful white and gold
+woman creature.
+
+"My dear," he said, brokenly, and bent his head.
+
+On the foggy streets below men and women passed and repassed like ghosts
+in the stillness. Little Miss Matthews, meeting Captain Stubbs on a
+street corner, was unconscious of his nearness until the little captain,
+guided by that sixth sense, which is given to sailors for their
+protection at sea, hailed her.
+
+"You needn't hurry home," he told her; "that Betty child don't want you.
+Dr. Blake is there. That's his car."
+
+"He was there yesterday," said Miss Matthews, disturbed by the doctor's
+departure from his usual routine.
+
+"And he'll probably be there to-morrow; he's getting sweet on that Betty
+child, Miss Mattie."
+
+"Oh, dear, no," said the shocked Miss Matthews. "Why, he's in love with
+Diana Gregory."
+
+The captain gazed at her blankly. "You don't mean it," he protested.
+
+"Yes, I do," said Miss Matthews; "they've known each other all their
+lives. But she doesn't want to settle down."
+
+"Well, she'd better look out," said the little captain; "men won't wait
+forever."
+
+"Men like Anthony Blake," returned Miss Matthews with conviction, "will.
+And as for Bettina, she's nothing but a child!"
+
+The little captain carried the conversation over, tactfully, to his
+favorite topic. "I want you and that Betty child to go with me for a
+day's fishin' soon," he said; "you just name the day."
+
+Little Miss Matthews hated the sea, with the hatred of a woman whose
+ancestors had made their living on the Banks and had been drowned in
+storms. But she liked the captain. "I am sure you are very kind," she
+said, primly, "but it will have to be Saturday when there isn't any
+school."
+
+"All right," said the captain,--"make it a week from Saturday, and we'll
+probably have clearing weather."
+
+The doctor, going down, met little Miss Matthews. Bettina, leaning over
+the rail, greeted the little lady somewhat self-consciously. "I'll make
+your tea in a minute," she said; "the doctor didn't want any."
+
+When Anthony reached the bottom of the stair, he looked up. The faint
+light of the lantern drew a circle of radiance about Bettina's head.
+
+"Wait," she called softly, and came down to him, and in the darkness
+whispered that she was happy, so very happy--and would she see him soon?
+
+"To-morrow," he promised, and went away with his pulses pounding.
+
+All the way home he thought of her. She had been charming. He felt like
+an adventuring knight, who, having killed all the dragons, rescues the
+captive princess from her tower. She was a dear child. A dear--child.
+
+At the sanatorium he had a bath and a good dinner, and made his rounds.
+One little woman, when he had passed, spoke to another of his smile. "It
+is as if he were happy in his heart," she said, quaintly; "before this
+his eyes have been sad."
+
+Later the doctor found time to read his mail. On the top of the pile of
+letters was a thick one in a gray envelope addressed in feminine script.
+He opened it and read eagerly. Then he sat very still, trying, amid all
+the beating agony of emotion, to grasp the truth as she had told it.
+Diana was free. Her engagement was broken. She was coming back to
+America. "I am coming home to the big house--and to you--Anthony." And
+she would be there in just ten days!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+IN WHICH DIANA REAPS
+
+
+All the way down in the train Diana kept saying to her friend, "I am so
+glad you are going to see my house, Sophie. You can't imagine how lovely
+it is."
+
+But even then Mrs. Martens was not prepared. She was given a room on the
+third floor from which glass doors opened on a little balcony which
+overhung the harbor. It was like the upper deck of a ship with the open
+sea to the right and left, and with a strip of green peninsula cutting
+into it beyond the causeway.
+
+"That's the Neck," Diana explained; "the yacht clubs are over there and
+some hotels and big houses. But I like it on this side, in the town.
+It's so quaint and lovely. I'll show you some of it to-morrow morning."
+
+"I'm not going anywhere to-morrow morning. I am going to sleep until
+noon."
+
+Diana bent and kissed her. "Poor thing, is she tired?"
+
+"Dead."
+
+"Well, I won't wake you. But I am going to be up with the dawn, Sophie."
+
+Mrs. Martens turned and looked at her. "Is Anthony here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Diana caught her breath as she said it, and the two friends stood,
+silently, looking over the harbor.
+
+The twilight was taking the blue out of the water, but the beauty was
+still there--with the lights on the anchored boats twinkling like stars
+in the grayness, and the lighthouse making a great moon above them.
+
+"When will you see him, Diana?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+"Then I'm going to bed."
+
+"You're not--I want you to meet him, Sophie."
+
+"You want him every bit for yourself. Don't be a hypocrite, Diana."
+
+Diana laid her hands on Sophie's shoulders and shook her a little,
+laughing.
+
+"Sophie, do you ever feel so young that you are almost wild with it--as
+if there hadn't been any years since you wore pinafores and pigtails?"
+
+"No--I'm thirty-five, Diana."
+
+"Don't shout it from the housetops. I'm a very few years behind. What a
+lot of wasted years, Sophie."
+
+"It's your own fault, Diana."
+
+"But I wanted to be free----"
+
+"And now you are longing for your prison----"
+
+"With Anthony--yes."
+
+"You'd better go down and dress, dear. Put on that pale blue, with your
+pearls, Diana. It fits in with the moonlight."
+
+"Then you won't come down?"
+
+"No. I'll have Peter for company."
+
+Peter Pan was Diana's cat. He was as yellow as a harvest moon, he was
+fed on fish, and was of a prodigious fatness. During Diana's sojourn
+abroad he had been looked after by Delia Hobbs.
+
+Delia was Diana's housekeeper. She had a lame hip and a lovely mind. She
+went up to Mrs. Martens' room after Diana had left to see if the little
+lady was comfortable for the night.
+
+She eyed Peter Pan, who was in the middle of the big bed.
+
+"Peter," she said, severely, "that's no place for you."
+
+Peter rolled over, and clawed the lace spread luxuriously.
+
+"Shall I take him off, ma'am?" Delia asked.
+
+"It's nice to have him here," said Mrs. Martens, doubtfully, "but
+perhaps I ought not to let him stay. You know best, Delia."
+
+Delia, a little flattered by such deference, hesitated. "I might bring
+his basket up here," she said; "he isn't a bit of trouble. He just goes
+to sleep and doesn't wake up until morning."
+
+As Delia opened the door to go down, the rippling measures of "The
+Spring Song," played softly, came up to them. Sophie had a vision of
+Diana in her shimmering gown, waiting in the moonlight for Anthony.
+
+Delia came back with the basket. It was of brown wicker with brown
+cushions. Peter, curled up in it, made a sunflower combination.
+
+"You are sure you're all right, Miss Sophie?" Delia asked as she stood
+on the threshold. "If you don't want the electric light, there's a
+candle on your table, and if you like the air straight from the sea you
+can open the door on the porch. Miss Diana used to like to lie and look
+at the moonlight."
+
+The whole world seemed obsessed by the moonlight. Its white radiance,
+when Mrs. Martens at last turned off the glaring bulbs, seemed to cast a
+spell over sea and land. She stepped out on the porch, and was awed by
+the beauty of the wide sweep of shining sky and sea. Then, far below on
+the hidden road, she heard the beat of a motor.
+
+The sound ceased and a man's quick step came up the path. There was the
+whirr of an electric bell, and she knew that Anthony had come.
+
+Well, Diana had her Anthony--and she had--Peter! She laughed a little to
+stifle a sigh. Diana had the substance--she her shadowy memories.
+
+A faint breeze had sprung up. The yachts tugged at their moorings
+as the tide turned. Far to the southeast Minot's light blinked its
+one-four-three--"I-warn-you"--message to the ships. Diana had
+once said of it, "The sweethearts off the coast translate it
+differently--'I-love-you.' That's what Anthony told me."
+
+How she had always quoted him! Even when for a brief time she had
+drifted toward that other, she had clung to her belief in Anthony's
+faith and goodness--and when she had shaken herself free she had flown
+back to him.
+
+And now--in the dim room below Diana was coming at last into her own!
+
+The little lady crept into bed, shivering--perhaps with the chill of
+the spring night, perhaps with the thought of the happiness from which
+she was left out.
+
+Presently she heard again the beat of the motor. Beginning in front of
+the house, it grew fainter in the distance; then silence, and at last a
+soft step on the stairs.
+
+"Sophie," there was that in Diana's voice which made her sit up and
+listen, "Sophie, are you asleep?"
+
+Mrs. Martens lighted the bedside candle with shaking hands. Diana came
+forward into the circle of light. Diana--with all of youth gone from
+her. Diana stripped of joy. Diana with the shimmering blue gown seeming
+to mock the tragedy in her face.
+
+She came up to the bed and stood looking down at her friend.
+
+"Listen, Sophie," she said, brokenly, "see what I've done. Anthony is
+engaged, Sophie. Engaged to another girl!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Peter, in his basket, slept soundly all night. But Sophie slept not at
+all. And early in the morning she went down to her friend.
+
+Diana had taken the room which had been her mother's. She had kept the
+carved canopy bed and other massive pieces, but she had changed the
+hangings and the wall covering from mauve to rose-color.
+
+"You see, Sophie," she had explained one day in Berlin, "there comes a
+time in the life of every woman when she needs rose-color to counteract
+the gray of her existence. If you put blue with gray you get gray. But
+if you put pink with gray you get rose-color. Perhaps you didn't know
+that before, Sophie, but now you do. And you'll know also that when I
+dare wear a blue gown I am feeling positively infantile."
+
+Diana, in négligé, had always made Mrs. Martens think of a rose in
+bloom. She had a fashion of swathing her head, cap-fashion, in wide pink
+ribbon, and her crêpe kimonos always reflected the same enchanting hue.
+
+But this morning it was a white rose which lay back on the pillows.
+Diana's loose brown braids hung straight down on each side of her pale
+face. There were shadows under her eyes.
+
+"Don't look at me that way, Sophie," she said, sharply, as Mrs. Martens
+came up to the bed. "I--I'm not going into a decline--or break my
+heart--or----"
+
+She broke off and said in a changed voice, "You're a dear." Then with a
+pitiful little laugh, "It wouldn't be so hard--but she's so young,
+Sophie."
+
+"Eighteen--poor Anthony!"
+
+"Do you think he is really unhappy, Sophie?"
+
+The night before when she had lain in Mrs. Martens' comforting arms, she
+had thought only of her own misery. For a time she had been just a
+little sobbing child to be consoled. All her poise, all her
+self-restraint had gone down under the force of the overwhelming shock.
+
+But now a wild hope sprang up in her breast. Why should two people
+suffer for the sake of one? And the other girl was so young--she would
+get over it.
+
+Yet, remembering Anthony's face as he had left her, she had little hope.
+
+"I wish you might have been prepared for this," he had said. "I wrote a
+letter, but it must have missed you. Perhaps it has been best to talk it
+out--that's why I came. May I still come, sometimes, Diana?"
+
+Then her pride had risen to meet the crisis.
+
+"As if anything could spoil our friendship, Anthony," she had told him
+bravely. "I want you to come--and some day you must bring--the Girl."
+
+"You will like her," he had said, eagerly, with a man's blundering
+confidence, "and you can help her. She is very lonely, Diana--and I was
+lonely----"
+
+That had been the one shred of apology which he had vouchsafed for the
+act which had spoiled their lives.
+
+When he had first entered the moonlighted room, she had turned from the
+piano and had held out her hands to him.
+
+He had taken them, and had stood looking down at her, with eyes which
+spoke what his lips would not say.
+
+And at last he had asked, "Why didn't you marry that fellow in Berlin,
+Di?"
+
+"Because I didn't love him, Anthony. I found out just in time--and I
+found out, too, just in time that--it was you--Anthony."
+
+Then he had said, "Hush," and had dropped her hands, and after a long
+time, he had spoken. "Di, I've asked another woman to marry me, and she
+has said, 'Yes.'"
+
+Out of a stunned silence she had whispered. "How--did it happen?"
+
+"Don't ask me--it is done--and it can't be undone--we have made a mess
+of things, Diana----"
+
+He gave the bare details; of the sick mother who had crept back after
+years of absence to die in her own town, of the girl and her loneliness,
+of her child-like faith in him.
+
+When he had finished, she had laid her hand on his arm. "But do you love
+her, do you really love her, Anthony?" had been her desolate demand.
+
+He had drawn back, and not meeting her eyes, had said, very low, "You
+haven't the right to ask that question, Di, or I to answer it----"
+
+And in that moment she had realized that the barrier which separated
+herself and Anthony was high enough to shut out happiness.
+
+"Oh--oh." As Diana's thoughts came back to the present, she sat up in
+bed and wept helplessly. "Oh, I don't know what I am going to do,
+Sophie. I've always been so self-sufficient, and now it seems as if my
+whole world revolves about one man----"
+
+Never before had Diana, self-contained Diana, talked to her friend of
+the things which lay deep beneath the surface, but now she revealed her
+soul to the little woman who had known love in all its fulfilment, and
+who, having lost that love, still lived.
+
+"What you must do," said Sophie, softly, "is to face it. You've got to
+look at the thing squarely, dearest-dear. It is because you and Anthony
+forgot to keep burning the sacred fires that this trouble has come upon
+you."
+
+"What do you mean, Sophie?"
+
+"When two people love each other," said Sophie, slowly, "it is a
+wonderful thing, a sacred thing, Diana. What you gave Ulric was not
+love--you were fascinated for the moment, and when you found him
+disappointing, you let him go lightly, yet all the time, deep in your
+heart, was this great Anthony--is it not so, my Diana?"
+
+"Yes," the other whispered, with her face hidden.
+
+"And Anthony, when he thought he had lost you, took this little girl to
+fill your place--and she can never fill it, and so because each of you
+has made of love a light thing, you must have your punishment. We must
+reap what we sow, Diana.
+
+"Don't think I am not sympathetic, liebchen," she went on, "but, oh,
+Diana, I'd rather see you this way than with Ulric Van Rosen as your
+lover."
+
+She knelt by the bed with her arms about her friend. Two years before
+Diana had comforted Sophie when death had claimed the great-hearted
+husband who had made the little woman's life complete. Since then they
+had clung together, and there had developed in Sophie an almost maternal
+devotion for the brilliant girl who had hitherto moved through life
+triumphant and serene.
+
+Delia, at the door, presented a worried face. "I've got some milk toast
+for Miss Diana," she explained, "and your breakfast is waiting for you,
+Miss Sophie----"
+
+"Breakfast," Diana pushed back the brown brightness of her hair and
+laughed hysterically; "is that the way the world must go on for me now,
+Sophie? You know--for you've been through it--must I eat and drink and
+be merry when my heart is--broken----?"
+
+"Hush." Again she was in Sophie's arms. "Delia will hear."
+
+But Delia's imagination had not grasped the possibility of any mental or
+spiritual disturbance. "I guess she's got one of her mother's
+headaches," she said, as she edged herself further into the room. "I
+always knew she'd have them some day--although up to now she's been
+perfectly well."
+
+"Set the tray on the table, Delia," Mrs. Martens spoke over her
+shoulder, "and I'll come down presently--and you might go up and get
+Peter. I think I shut the door as I came out----"
+
+Delia took the hint. "There's broiled fish and waffles," she complained,
+as she departed, "and they don't taste any better for waiting."
+
+"You go down, Sophie," said Diana, when they were alone--"and I'll get
+up presently, and then--I'll see some way out of it----"
+
+At her tone, her friend who had crossed the room to pull up the shades
+turned and looked at her. "What way _can_ you see, Diana?"
+
+Diana slipped out of bed and stood up, tall and white, with the long
+brown braids hanging heavily to her knees.
+
+"There must be some way," she said, "for all of us. I don't believe in
+sitting down and letting things go wrong, and they may be as wrong for
+that little girl as for Anthony and me--surely one must use common sense
+in a case like this----"
+
+Sophie pulled up the curtain, letting in a flood of sunshine.
+
+"One may use common sense," she said, "but one must be very careful----"
+
+Diana twisted her braids into a coronet, and put on a padded Japanese
+robe, for the air blew cool from the sea. Then she sat down at her desk.
+
+"I am going to ask her to come and visit me, Sophie. I want you to take
+the letter when you go down to breakfast."
+
+"To visit you--who?"
+
+"Bettina. She can stay until Anthony's big house is ready. I want to
+know his little girl."
+
+While Diana wrote her note, Sophie stepped out on the porch which
+matched her own above it. The harbor lay still and beautiful, a sapphire
+sheet in the morning calm. The anchored boats seemed to sleep like great
+white birds on its bosom.
+
+Suddenly there broke upon the stillness the sound of a great buzzing, as
+of some mammoth bee.
+
+"What is it?" asked Diana, standing in the doorway.
+
+"Look, oh, look," cried Sophie, and then they saw above them, darting
+like a dragon-fly through the golden haze, a magic ship of the air.
+
+"I wonder who's flying," said Diana, as they watched it go up and up
+until it was a mere speck against the blue. "They are daring folk, these
+flying men--yet there are men more daring. If you could see Anthony's
+hands! Those strong, competent hands that work with instruments and
+surgeon's needles, and a slip may mean some one's life--it's such men
+who are the bravest, Sophie, not the men who fly."
+
+The little woman stepped back within the circle of her friend's arm.
+Diana towered a head above her, yet spiritually she leaned on Sophie's
+fineness and faith.
+
+Their eyes followed that astounding flight, but their thoughts were with
+a man whose mornings were spent not in the golden radiance of the upper
+air, but in the bare blackness of an operating room.
+
+Suddenly Diana spoke sharply. "If I have lost him, Sophie, what shall I
+do?"
+
+"What do all women do," said Sophie, still gazing with rapt face up into
+the heavens, "what do all women do who lose the men they love? They pray
+for courage, Diana, and for strength--and then--and then they fight as
+best they can until the end--Diana."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WHITE LILACS
+
+
+"Isn't it dear of her to ask me?"
+
+"Very." Anthony took the note which Bettina handed him. In his desk were
+many letters written on the gray paper with the silver monogram.
+Subconsciously he realized that he ought to destroy them, but there was
+time enough for that.
+
+"She says she wants me to stay with her all summer; do you think I
+ought?"
+
+"She would not have asked you if she had not meant it."
+
+Bettina, with her small feet on the fender, considered the situation.
+
+"You'll have to come and see me there, and I'll miss our twilight talks
+by the fire, with Miss Matthews away, and tea, and no one to
+interrupt----"
+
+"The days are growing longer. Soon there will be no twilights and no
+fire----"
+
+"And you want me to go?"
+
+His nature was perfectly honest, and he meant that there should be no
+barriers between himself and this child-woman. So he told her the truth.
+"I don't know. But you'll be very gay. There'll be the dances at the
+yacht clubs, and you'll be entertained on the boats, and you'll meet
+lots of people. Diana knows every one, and her money and position and
+her beauty make her much in demand."
+
+"Isn't it funny she has never married?"
+
+"Funny"--sharply; "no, it's not funny. It's tragic."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because such women as Diana should marry. She has all the qualities for
+a wife and mother--she is wise and true and good, and there aren't many
+women like that in the world----"
+
+"Oh," the girl drew her breath quickly, "I'm not like that--I'm little
+and childish, and I'm not wise."
+
+He saw what he had done and tried to make amends.
+
+"You are--you, Bettina."
+
+"Well," Bettina crossed the hearth-rug, and sat down on a stool at his
+feet, "she's awfully old, isn't she?"
+
+"My dear, she's years younger than I."
+
+"Oh, you," she laughed and laid her cheek against his hand. "Your heart
+is just my age, isn't it?"
+
+He moved restlessly, then stood up, with Diana's note still in his hand.
+
+"You'd better write and tell her you'll come," he said. "I'll take you
+over to-morrow in my car."
+
+She surveyed him wistfully. "Oh, must you really go?"
+
+"Yes. There's the old man with the pneumonia, and the girl with
+appendicitis, and the new baby at the hospital--I can't neglect them,
+Bettina."
+
+"When we are married," she asked, tremulously, "will all these sick
+people keep you from me----"
+
+"A doctor belongs to his patients, my dear----"
+
+"I suppose he does," pensively, "but I shall be terribly jealous of your
+old men with the pneumonia, and your girls with appendicitis. I shall
+want you."
+
+If she had hoped to please him by her frank avowal she failed, for he
+stood looking at her with an expression which made her say hastily,
+"Don't you want me to want you?"
+
+"I was wondering if I could make you happy."
+
+She gave a little musical note of protest. "I am the happiest girl in
+the world, except--oh, if mother could only know."
+
+With a quick change of mood, she was sobbing in his arms. The masses of
+her hair lay soft against his lips, one slim white hand crept to touch
+his cheek. He imprisoned the small hand in his. "We must have a ring for
+this soon," and she shifted her head so that she could look up at him
+from under wet lashes. "Oh," she said, "shall I?"
+
+"Of course. What shall it be?"
+
+"Anything but pearls; they mean tears, you know."
+
+With a quick throb of the heart, he remembered that Diana always wore
+pearls. Was there something after all in the old superstition, and were
+the rest of Diana's days to be dreary because she had chosen the wrong
+jewels?
+
+_Diana, Diana, Diana_, would his mind never leave her?
+
+Then as if his thought had brought her, he heard her voice upon the
+stairs.
+
+"May I come up? I rang, but no one answered."
+
+"The bell is broken." He hurried out into the hall, and watched her
+ascend, with her arms full of white lilacs, her gray eyes shaded by a
+white veil thrown back from a broad hat, and around her throat the
+inevitable string of pearls.
+
+"I've come to bring some of my flowers to your little Betty child, and
+to get her answer to my note."
+
+She was smiling now, smiling at him, and at Bettina, who had come
+forward timidly.
+
+Diana laid the lilacs on the table, and drew the girl into her arms.
+"When shall it be, my dear? It seems such a perfect plan to me. The big
+house isn't finished. You can't go into it until fall, and I can help
+you get things ready. What do you think, Anthony?"
+
+"I don't know. I'll leave it to your wisdom."
+
+"Then I am sure it will be best," she responded cheerfully, "and now,
+why not to-morrow?"
+
+"I haven't anything to wear," Bettina stated, anxiously.
+
+"There's a sewing woman at the house, and Sophie and I have brought lots
+of things from Paris."
+
+"Really? And will you tell me all about your trip?"
+
+"Sophie will tell you. She's the talker. I like to listen--Anthony knows
+that."
+
+If she had meant to stab him by reviving old memories, she succeeded.
+How he had missed the responsiveness which had spurred him on to talk
+his best only his hurt heart knew. It had been her belief in him, which
+had supplemented his ability, and had brought him success, and he knew
+it and she knew it, and now Bettina was to try to play that inspiring
+part.
+
+Nothing of his thought showed, however, in his impassive countenance. He
+stood up and held out his hand.
+
+"My old man with the pneumonia is waiting," he said, "and you'll want to
+visit a bit with Bettina."
+
+"But there's one thing," he continued hurriedly "that I'd like to speak
+of before I leave--to have settled. Do you think it will be wise to make
+a public announcement of our engagement?"
+
+"Why not?" sharply.
+
+Bettina glanced from one to the other, conscious of some undercurrent of
+feeling which she did not share.
+
+"It's just this way," said Anthony, slowly; "if Bettina could meet your
+friends and mine, under your auspices, chaperoned by you, they would
+discover her charms and loveliness," he smiled at the girl, "and they'd
+then welcome her with open arms. Now she knows none of them; it would be
+only on your account that she would be received, not upon her own, and I
+think she'd like the other better Diana. What do you think, Bettina?"
+he asked. "It is for you to say."
+
+Bettina, who was making a tiny white nosegay of lilacs to pin on
+Anthony's coat, turned to them a sparkling countenance.
+
+"Me--does it matter? Does anything matter except that I am going to
+marry you, Anthony?"
+
+She held out her hands to him, laughing over her shoulder at Diana. With
+her flower face, her hair of gold, her figure slim and swaying like a
+lily on its stem, she was radiantly, almost impertinently young, and,
+with a sudden sense of age and weariness, Diana buried her face in the
+lilacs to hide a whiteness which matched their own.
+
+But she had not been quick enough to escape the keen eyes of Anthony.
+
+He dropped Bettina's hands. "I'll stop to-morrow morning, child, on my
+way to the sanatorium, and take you over."
+
+"And dine with us later," said Diana. "I'm going to have a lot of
+people. It will be a sort of impromptu housewarming. I've telephoned
+about a dozen old friends."
+
+"But I haven't anything to wear." Bettina was again in a panic.
+
+"You'll have about twelve hours to get ready," Diana comforted; "we can
+do a lot in that time."
+
+But her mind was not on clothes, for she followed the doctor out into
+the hall to say, "She's just sweet, Anthony----"
+
+"Don't," suddenly all the calm of his fine face was broken up, "don't,
+Diana----"
+
+Then Bettina came out with the little nosegay of white lilacs.
+
+"You were going away without it," she said reproachfully to the doctor,
+who was half-way down the stairway.
+
+"Throw it to me and I'll catch it," he called.
+
+But she ran after him and pinned it on and dropped a hasty kiss in the
+midst of its fragrance, and ran up again, blushing.
+
+And Diana watched the little scene from the top of the stairs and
+wondered if she had overestimated her own power to endure.
+
+The two women, standing at the window high up in the hallway, saw the
+doctor depart, then Diana said, suddenly, "Betty, dear, must you wear
+black?"
+
+The girl's lip trembled.
+
+"But--mother----"
+
+"I know. But, dearie, it wouldn't make her any happier to see you so
+somber. And there's white for you, and all the pale, pretty tints, and
+you wouldn't be too gay, nor sadden others."
+
+"But your friend, Mrs. Martens," said Bettina, eagerly; "Anthony pointed
+her out to me this afternoon--she passed here on her way to the
+post-office, and she was in deep mourning----"
+
+"Sophie's life is all behind her; yours is ahead of you."
+
+"Wouldn't it seem like--forgetting?"
+
+"You can never forget. But when you come to me there will be young
+people, and I want you to share their life. Shall we call it settled,
+and plan a white dress for to-morrow night?"
+
+Diana had a fashion of calling things settled, and of bringing others to
+her point of view. Bettina had no sense of injury, but only boundless
+confidence in the decisions of the wonderful woman creature who was to
+fill her life with gladness.
+
+"There will be twelve of us to-morrow night," she sketched rapidly.
+"Anthony and you and Sophie and I will make four, then there will be two
+comfortable married couples, and Justin Ford, who is flying his
+hydro-aeroplane over the harbor, and Bobbie Tucker, who has his yacht in
+commission, and Sara Duffield, whom you won't care for, because she is
+a bit of a snob, and Doris Sears, who is sweet and girlish and about
+your age.
+
+"Sophie and I have picked out the dress you are to wear," she continued.
+"I think you are just about Sophie's size, and there's an embroidered
+white, very sheer and fine, with a round low neck and short sleeves, and
+a girdle of amethyst, and silk stockings and satin slippers of the same
+color. I'm not sure whether the slippers will fit, but I fancy that a
+bit of cotton tucked into the toes would make them all right.
+
+"And I want you to wear your hair like I saw the girls in Paris--curled
+over your ears with a soft fringe--you'll look adorably young, Betty,
+and so dear and sweet."
+
+The girl's cheeks were brilliant with excitement. "Why, it doesn't seem
+true. Two days ago I was like Cinderella sitting in the ashes, and now
+I'm a fairy princess, and you are the fairy godmother."
+
+"Am I, my dear?" Diana spoke absently; her eyes were on a wonderful
+piece of lace, which, framed quaintly against a background of velvet,
+hung above a cabinet in the corner.
+
+"Where did you get that collar, Bettina?" she asked.
+
+"It was one of the things that belonged to father's family," the girl
+explained. "You know he was an Italian, a Venetian--and mother would
+never let me wear the collar or the old jewels. There's a queer ring.
+I'm going to give it to Anthony for a wedding ring."
+
+She spoke the last words with a charming hesitation, then went to the
+little cabinet in the corner and unlocked a drawer. Within was a carved
+box which when opened showed a massive golden circlet.
+
+"Dad wore it," said Bettina, "on his little finger, but his hands were
+fat. Anthony's fingers are slim, and he can fit it on the third finger.
+If he can't get it on the third finger, he shan't wear it."
+
+Diana stared at her in surprise. "Why not?"
+
+"Because it would remind me of Dad," said Bettina, "and I hated Dad."
+
+Here was a new phase of a nature which Diana had judged gentle and
+yielding.
+
+"But, my dear," she protested, "surely he was your father."
+
+"He broke mother's heart," said Bettina, obstinately; "he loved so many
+times, and there's only one love that is worth while, and people who
+can go from one person to another aren't worth thinking about."
+
+It was the judgment of a child ignorant of life, but so aptly did her
+condemnation fit in with Sophie's words of the night before, that Diana
+drew a sharp breath. "Perhaps he was only mistaken," she said; "perhaps
+he didn't understand until it was too late what he had lost."
+
+"He should have understood. I don't want to be harsh--he was my father,
+and I wouldn't talk this way to every one. But suppose Anthony treated
+me the way my father treated mother. Suppose he told me he loved me, and
+then--some day, I found that he cared--for some one else. What would you
+think of him then--what would you think of Anthony?"
+
+As she brought her argument to a triumphant close, Diana put up her
+white-gloved hands as if to ward off a blow, then she said, a little
+breathlessly, "Don't let Anthony wear the ring--not yet----"
+
+Bettina, unconscious of the emotion she had roused, put the ring back in
+the box.
+
+"I don't believe I shall," she said, thoughtfully; "there's an old
+superstition that a ring worn by an inconstant person carries
+inconstancy with it--and while I don't believe it--it would make me
+uncomfortable."
+
+"It would--indeed," was Diana's fervent confirmation.
+
+She was still shivering with the shock of the girlish outburst.
+
+"She loves him," she said to herself in dismay. "She really loves him."
+
+She rose and laid her hand on Bettina's shoulder. "Forget to be unhappy
+while you are with me, Betty, dear. You are going to be very gay--and,
+oh, so very, very young----" She bent and kissed her. "And now, I want
+you to do two things for me;--first, you must call me Diana--and second,
+you must believe that I am really your friend. If I ever do anything to
+make you doubt, remember this, that in my heart is just one wish, to
+help my old friend Anthony to happiness----"
+
+The girl laughed softly, her head up, her eyes shining. "You can't make
+him much happier than he is," she said; "it may sound awfully conceited,
+but I think he's happy--because he's going to marry me--Diana."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN WHICH BETTINA DANCES
+
+
+Diana's house, set high on the rocks, hung over the harbor. In the
+quaint old town, front doors became back doors, kitchens looked out on
+the street, and the windows of living-rooms and dining-rooms faced the
+sea. But there were two seasons when the rocky and ignored gardens of
+the town were ablaze with beauty--in the lilac month of the spring, and
+in the dahlia month of the fall.
+
+It was at the time of lilac bloom that Bettina came to make her
+wonderful visit to Diana, and, after an exciting day in which she had
+been swept from the hands of the dressmaker to the hands of the
+hair-dresser, thence to Sophie for inspection and to Diana for
+confirmation of the completeness of her attire, she found herself,
+arrayed in all her glory, alone in the wide hallway.
+
+The door was open at the end which faced the town, and the fragrance of
+the lilacs poured in. The soft wind swayed the branches of the bushes so
+that they seemed to float like white and purple clouds against a
+background of blue.
+
+On the step sat Peter Pan, and as Bettina came toward him he rose to
+meet her and together they went down the path.
+
+It was there in the old garden that Justin and Bobbie came upon her.
+They were in the white flannels and blue coats which Diana's informality
+permitted. The insignia on Bobbie's cap proclaimed him a yachtsman.
+
+Justin, having presented Bobbie, smiled straight into Bettina's eyes.
+
+"To think of finding you here," he said.
+
+"How is your hand?" was her practical question.
+
+"Dr. Anthony cured it. I was able to fly yesterday over the harbor. When
+are you going to fly with me?"
+
+"Never." Bettina shivered with apprehension.
+
+"Oh, but you'd like it," broke in Bobbie, eagerly. "I've been up with
+him, and it's like floating on a sea of sunshine. I give you my word the
+sensation is delightful."
+
+Justin said no more on the subject. He could wait, but some day he was
+going to fly with this little golden girl. He wondered who had been
+inspired to dress her in that white and amethyst combination. She was
+as flower-like as the lilacs themselves--she belonged to them; she was
+exquisite.
+
+He walked beside her, content to let Bobbie monopolize the conversation,
+which was unusual, for Justin liked to be the center of things. He had
+always been the center of things, and he was not diffident, as a rule,
+in his approaches toward friendship.
+
+"The funny thing about this place," Bobbie was saying, "is that you have
+to pass the kitchen door to get to the front. When I was a little boy
+Delia used to roll out cookies on that table by the window, and I'd sit
+on the step and wait for them."
+
+"Delia's a dear," said Bettina. "I fell in love with her the minute I
+came. And I fell in love with Peter."
+
+Peter, hearing his name, jumped down from the stone wall, where he had
+been watching the robins, and again joined them.
+
+"Peter and I are old friends," said Bobbie, and stopped to pet him.
+
+"So you are going to stay with Diana?" Justin asked.
+
+Bettina nodded. "Yes. Isn't she wonderful?"
+
+"Wonderful. It's a pity we aren't a monarchy, so that Diana could rule
+as a queen. She's that kind of woman. A man instinctively looks up to
+her."
+
+"That's what Anthony says."
+
+Marveling somewhat at her familiar use of the name of the distinguished
+surgeon, Justin replied, "Oh, of course, Anthony thinks she's perfect.
+He'll marry her some day."
+
+Bettina's startled glance questioned him. "What makes you say that? He
+won't, of course, but what makes you say it?"
+
+"Because it would be such a perfect arrangement. They are so well
+matched."
+
+"It wouldn't be perfect at all. People who are alike never ought to
+marry. And, anyhow, they've never thought of such a thing."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because they are not in love. Any one can see that who sees them
+together. They are just good friends--and friendship is a very different
+thing from love."
+
+Justin stared at her in amazement for a moment, then he threw back his
+head and laughed. "Oh, wise young woman," he said, "talk to me some more
+of love----"
+
+"Who's talking of love?" asked Bobbie, coming up.
+
+"Bobbie doesn't think of anything else," said Justin; "only he's never
+sure of its object. Last month it was Sara, and now it is Doris--next
+week it will be----"
+
+"Next week," said Bobbie, firmly, "it will be Doris,--and the next and
+the next--and always----"
+
+They were on the porch now--the wide porch with its rugs and low wicker
+chairs, its gay striped awning and its bowls of white and purple lilacs.
+
+Sophie was waiting for them, and Justin greeted her with all the light
+carelessness gone from his voice.
+
+"Dear lady, it is good to see you again, but hard to see this," and his
+eyes went to her black gown.
+
+Her lips were tremulous. "I know. But when I meet people who knew him,
+it does not make me sad; it makes me glad because all of his friends are
+my good friends."
+
+"There are two men whom I always place side by side as peers; one is
+Anthony Blake and the other your husband. The surgeon and the
+scientist----"
+
+"Yes," she said, "and they never met. But Diana knew him--and loved
+him."
+
+"And she loves--Anthony----"
+
+Mrs. Martens gave him a startled look. "Hush," she said. "Oh, no, you
+mustn't think that."
+
+"Perhaps she doesn't realize," he said, slowly, "but the world can see
+it with half an eye. And everybody knows Anthony's devotion."
+
+He stopped short as Diana appeared in the doorway. She wore white lace,
+with a crescent of pearls set just above the parting of her dark hair.
+
+Justin was on his feet in a moment. "Diana, the huntress," he said. "You
+shouldn't appear like that suddenly on a moonlight night unless you want
+to be worshiped as a goddess----"
+
+Diana laughed. "Please don't call me 'the huntress' again. It has a sort
+of 'woman still pursued him' sound."
+
+Justin, with Diana, was his light mocking self. With Bettina he had been
+self-conscious, with Sophie tenderly sympathetic--but Diana played up,
+as it were, to his boyish attitude of adoration.
+
+"Are we all here but Anthony?" she asked, with her eyes sweeping the
+length of the porch where the guests had gathered. "He's probably
+looking after somebody with appendicitis, or with a broken arm----"
+
+"No, he isn't." Bettina spoke with the assurance of direct knowledge.
+"This time it is a man's nose; it had to be sewed up."
+
+She shivered as she said it, and her audience roared.
+
+"I'm glad it's not Bobbie's nose," said Justin, "it's the only really
+handsome feature he possesses isn't it, Doris?"
+
+The blushing Doris murmured inarticulately. She thought Bobbie
+beautiful, and wondered why any one should designate his nose so
+explicitly.
+
+Diana regretted that she had not warned Bettina against such assumption
+of intimacy with Anthony. If people were not to know of the engagement,
+it was not well--
+
+But Anthony had come, perfectly groomed, from the tips of his white
+shoes to the top of his head, and presently he was bending over her
+hand, and saying, pleasantly, "It's a jolly lot of us you've got
+together, Di. Did I keep you waiting?"
+
+"If you had, it wouldn't be me, but Delia, to whom you'd have to
+apologize. She's the real head of the house, you know."
+
+Justin took Bettina out, Anthony took Sophie, and one of the married men
+Diana. At the table Bettina sat between the other married man and
+Justin, much to her discomfort, for she craved the seat next to the
+doctor, where perchance she might slip her fingers into his; he seemed
+so far away, and they were all strangers.
+
+But no one could be shy with Justin. "Of course we're going to be great
+friends," he said.
+
+Bettina eyed him doubtfully.
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+Here at least was no meek surrender to his charms, and Justin girded
+himself for the flirtation.
+
+"Well, I'm Diana's friend," he ventured.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Isn't that reason enough?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I like to choose my friends for myself."
+
+"Won't you choose me?"
+
+She smiled up at him. "Of course; don't be silly."
+
+After that they got on famously. Justin exerted himself to please, and
+Bettina, with shining eyes, laughed softly in response to his clever
+wit.
+
+Sara Duffield watched and wondered. Justin had of late seemed her
+especial property. Yet she had heard him offer to take this strange
+young woman in his aeroplane, and he had never taken Sara.
+
+"Who is she?" Sara asked of Bobbie, who was next to her.
+
+"A friend of Diana's. She has been looking after her sick mother for a
+year. Then Mrs. Dolce died, and Diana asked the girl here. She's a
+beauty, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes," said Sara, who, in certain shimmering greens and blues, looked
+like a shining little peacock, an effect which was further emphasized by
+a slender feather caught by an emerald which she wore in her black hair.
+"Where did she live before she came to Diana?"
+
+"In the top of the Lane mansion."
+
+"The Lane mansion." Sara's tone was scornful. "But it's an awful old
+place----"
+
+"I fancy they didn't have much money. But she doesn't need it, not with
+that face."
+
+"Doris had better look out," said Sara, unpleasantly.
+
+"Doris?" Bobbie's round young face grew red. "Doris is the last one,
+Sara, and there won't be any other. You and Justin can just let that
+subject alone."
+
+Sara shrugged her shoulders, and returned to her survey of Bettina. "I
+wonder where she got that stunning gown, if she's so poor. It's straight
+from Paris."
+
+"Oh, you women," Bobbie exploded, and rested his eyes on Doris, across
+the table, and the thought of her gentleness was like soothing balm in
+contrast to Sara's sharpness.
+
+After dinner Diana sang. She sat at the piano, which was placed just
+within the door of the unlighted music room, and her guests grouped
+themselves on the porch outside.
+
+She gave them, first, a little German serenade, then a gay bit of Paris
+music-hall frivolity, and finally her fingers strayed into the
+accompaniment of a song which she had written for Anthony. It was called
+"The Wind From the Sea," and it had a haunting refrain.
+
+[Illustration: Music score]
+
+Diana's thrilling voice rose and fell with the beating cadences. She had
+sung the song for Anthony on the night before she sailed for Berlin, and
+when she had finished he had made once more his insistent plea, and she
+had said, "Wait."
+
+Bettina, next to Anthony, in a corner of the porch, had had a rapturous
+moment when he had murmured, "How lovely you are to-night," and had laid
+his hand over hers in the darkness.
+
+But as Diana sang, her joy was suddenly shadowed. Why was Diana singing
+things that seemed to drag the heart out of one, and why had Anthony
+taken his hand away, and why was he so still?
+
+Even as she questioned the search-light from the little ferry that plied
+between the Head and the Neck sent a shaft of blinding radiance across
+the harbor. Bettina caught a glimpse of her lover's face, and of the
+longing look in his eyes as they rested on Diana.
+
+Why did Anthony look at Diana like that?
+
+As the insistent question obsessed her, Bettina was conscious of no
+feeling of jealousy. Her faith in Anthony made impossible any thought
+that his heart was not wholly hers. She merely coveted the look in his
+eyes as they rested on another woman.
+
+"Of course it's just the way she sings," she told herself, restlessly.
+"Why, it almost makes me cry."
+
+The music ceased abruptly, and Diana sat very still in the darkness.
+
+It was Sophie's voice which broke the silence.
+
+"Betty, dear, haven't you a song for us?"
+
+"No," came the response from the far corner. "Dad sang. I can only
+dance."
+
+"Really?" Justin was on his feet at once. "If you'll dance, we will
+light all the candles in the music room."
+
+Bettina came forward. "It's an interpretive dance. Can you play the
+'Spring Song,' Diana?"
+
+Sophie, observing anxiously, wondered what further test would try her
+friend. But she saw no sign of an emotion which had to do with a night
+when Diana had waited in the moonlight for the lover who belonged to
+another woman, as with firm touch she played the first chords of the
+rippling melody.
+
+And Bettina danced.
+
+Justin, watching her, thought of lilacs blown by light breezes, of
+clouds on a May morning, of the drift of white petals from blossoming
+trees. Was she a woman or a wraith, this slender thing swaying in the
+candle-light?
+
+Anthony watched, too, leaning back, tired, in his chair.
+
+Diana watched, and asked herself, "Can any man resist such youth and
+beauty?"
+
+And Sophie watched, and said to herself, out of the pity of her great
+and loving heart, "She is such a child--and things are going to be hard
+for her."
+
+When Bettina finished, she went straight back to Anthony. "Did you like
+it?" she demanded.
+
+But his answer was lost in the applause which forced her to face the
+rest of them, and explain:
+
+"Dad taught me. He loved beauty, and he felt that the dance was beauty
+in motion."
+
+"Sit here by me," urged Justin, in a wheedling tone, and placed a chair
+for her.
+
+Bettina yearned wistfully for her corner and Anthony, but Sara was there
+now, and her light hard laugh floated out to them.
+
+"I think I'm tired," said Bettina, as she dropped into the chair, and
+Justin, the much sought after Justin, looked at her with chagrin.
+
+"Are you tired of me?" he asked in an injured voice.
+
+She shook her head. "No--but it's been an exciting day."
+
+Somewhere back in the house the telephone rang, and presently Delia came
+out for the doctor. "You're wanted at the Neck, sir," she said; "it's
+the old gentleman with the pneumonia."
+
+As Anthony went to answer the call, the other guests said their
+farewells.
+
+Justin reproached Bettina. "You haven't been a bit good to me; if I come
+again will you talk to me?"
+
+Bettina smiled. "I'll let you talk to me."
+
+"When?"
+
+She turned to Sophie. "When shall I let him come?"
+
+"He'll see you to-morrow on Bobbie's boat," said Sophie; "he wants us
+for lunch----"
+
+"Till to-morrow, then," said Justin, and bent over her hand; then he ran
+down the porch steps to Sara, who was waiting with her head held high.
+
+When Anthony came back from the telephone Bettina said, mournfully, "Now
+you must go, and I haven't talked to you for a single minute."
+
+He looked down into the wistful face, and hesitated, then he asked,
+"Would you like to ride with me over to the Neck? It won't take long,
+but you'd have time to tell me all about your beautiful day."
+
+She was radiant at once.
+
+"Of course I can go."
+
+"Take my cloak," said Sophie; "the long black one; it's warmer, and the
+air is cool."
+
+Diana, returning from a conference with Delia, asked, "Where's Betty?"
+
+"Gone for a little ride with Anthony."
+
+"But, Sophie, what will people say--at this hour?"
+
+"I told her to wear my black cloak," said Sophie; "it's less
+conspicuous, and she was so eager."
+
+Diana stood very still in the darkness. How she coveted the intimacy of
+the little car! She had ridden so often with Anthony, and he never
+talked so well as when driving; he never revealed so fully the depth and
+fineness of his great nature. Would he reveal himself to Bettina? Would
+he? And was she shut out from his life forever?
+
+She went up-stairs slowly. "You wait for them, Sophie," she said. "I'm
+tired--it's been a hard day----"
+
+"Poor dear." Sophie stood looking up at her from the foot of the stairs.
+"I'll come up and rub your head presently."
+
+"It isn't my head," Diana answered over her shoulder.
+
+"Poor dear," said Sophie again, softly, and saw with anxious eyes the
+droop of the ascending figure in the white gown.
+
+An hour later Bettina came.
+
+"We rode across the causeway, and down the shore drive. It was beautiful
+and Anthony is going to take me again. It's been such a lovely, lovely
+day, Mrs. Martens."
+
+All the doubts of the early evening had been swept away, and Bettina was
+triumphantly happy.
+
+When they reached the second floor, she stopped outside of Diana's room.
+
+"Good-night, dear lady," she called softly, with her lips against the
+door.
+
+"Good-night," came faintly, then after a moment, "dear child."
+
+But Diana did not open the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"FOR EVERY MAN THERE IS JUST ONE WOMAN"
+
+
+When Sophie, having donned a smoke-gray kimono and brushed her shining
+hair, went down to Diana, she expected to find her pensive. She found
+her, instead, with various little white jars and silver bottles set
+before her on her dressing table.
+
+"When a woman takes to cold cream, Sophie," she remarked, as her friend
+came in, "it's a deadly sign. It shows that she has found her first
+wrinkle."
+
+"Diana, how can you! You know that you are beautiful without such aids."
+
+"When I was in Paris," Diana continued, "I was persuaded into buying
+these. I was told that they held the secret of perpetual youth."
+
+"Perpetual youth is from the heart, Diana."
+
+"Then my heart is as old as the ages."
+
+Diana was gazing into the mirror, which reflected her tired face.
+
+"I can't think of anything but that child, dancing in the candle-light.
+Oh, youth, youth, Sophie; is there anything like it in the whole wide
+world!"
+
+"Diana," Sophie's voice was sharpened by her solicitude, "come away from
+that mirror."
+
+Diana obediently turned her back on her dressing table, and presently
+she said, "I wonder if it was wise to have her here?"
+
+"Bettina?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Sophie was thoughtful. "I'm not sure. Yet it seemed to me to-night that
+perhaps--you had been wise----"
+
+"What made you think that?"
+
+"Anthony's face when you played, Diana."
+
+"Oh!" Diana crossed the room and dropped down on the rug at her friend's
+feet. "Tell me how he looked," she said, softly, with her arm outflung
+across the other's knees.
+
+"It was just in a flash that I saw his face--under the search-light from
+the ferry. It was the face of a man who had lost the one woman in the
+world for him, Diana."
+
+"If I could believe that," said Diana, tensely, "nothing else would
+matter."
+
+"Yet, believing it, how can it be right for him to marry some one else?"
+
+Diana, with her chin propped between her hands, stared with wide eyes
+into space. "It isn't right--but she loves him, Sophie."
+
+"Yet she's not the one woman--oh, what a muddle, Diana."
+
+"What a muddle," and for a time they sat in silence.
+
+Then Sophie said, "Perhaps it's because I was so happy in my
+marriage--that I can see so clearly. I've worked it out this way,
+dearest, dear--that in all the world there's just one woman for one man.
+If he meets and marries her, no matter how hard their life may be, they
+will be drawn together, not separated, by the hardness; no matter how
+the world may use them, they will cling together against the world. But
+when a man marries the wrong woman, he goes through life a half-man,
+crippled in mind and spirit, because of his mistake. Sometimes the man
+finds the one woman in a second marriage; sometimes he finds her too
+late; sometimes he is too blind to know that she is the one woman, and
+he lets her go, to discover afterward that no other can fill his life.
+That's the pity of it. If Anthony marries Bettina, she will know some
+day--that she is--the wrong woman----"
+
+Diana rose and moved restlessly about the room. "But she's so slim and
+white and young--and no man can resist that sort of thing long. She has
+youth to give him, Sophie, and I, why, soon I'll be middle-aged."
+
+"You--oh, Diana----"
+
+Diana's laugh had a sob in it. "Well, I shall be."
+
+"You'll never be anything but lovely--when you're an old lady you'll be
+stately and distinguished, and your eyes will shine like stars, and men
+will still fall in love with you----"
+
+"Oh, Sophie, you're such a comfort----"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning Delia sent up three breakfasts on trays.
+
+"If it wasn't for that pretty child," she said to little Jane Trefry,
+who helped her in the kitchen, "there wouldn't be any satisfaction in
+getting things ready. Miss Sophie has learned foreign ways and wants
+rolls and coffee, and Miss Diana wants grape fruit. I don't know what's
+the matter with her appetite; she hasn't eaten enough for a bird since
+she came, and yet that first night she said to me, 'Oh, Delia, I'm just
+dying for some of your good New England cooking!'"
+
+"Maybe she's in love," said little Jane, who was romantic.
+
+Delia turned her omelette deftly. "Of course she is. Everybody knows she
+just about worships Dr. Blake, only she won't marry him till she gets
+good and ready. That's the house he's building for her--up the road,
+with the red-tiled roof and the wide stone porches. He had the window of
+her room toward Minot's, so that the light could say, 'I love you' to
+her at night."
+
+"She'd better look out," stated little Jane, with provincial frankness;
+"if she waits too long he'll be finding some one else to say 'I love
+you' to."
+
+"You keep your mind on that toast," Delia was dishing up the omelette,
+"and don't you forget that Miss Diana isn't the kind that a man goes
+back on. She could have had a dozen richer men than the doctor. But she
+didn't want them, and maybe she doesn't want him, but don't you get it
+into your head that he wants anybody else."
+
+Little Jane sniffed. "You can't tell about men," she said, as she went
+out of the door with Bettina's tray.
+
+Bettina, sitting up in bed, welcomed little Jane with enthusiasm. She
+ate everything from strawberries to omelette with a hearty appetite,
+then she lay comfortably, looking out toward the eastern horizon where
+the smoky streak of a steamer showed faintly.
+
+Presently Sophie came in with a gown of white serge--of simple lines,
+with wide collar and cuffs of sheer embroidered muslin. "Diana insisted
+that I should get some white things in Paris," she said, as she laid it
+over a chair. "She hoped that I might be induced to dress in something
+besides black, but I can't, and so I am sure that you will be willing to
+wear these out for me, my dear."
+
+Bettina put one bare foot on the floor, then the other, then she
+fluttered across the room like a white butterfly and embraced Mrs.
+Martens.
+
+"It's lovely, only it doesn't seem quite right for me to take
+everything."
+
+"It is right. They would lie in my trunks until they were out of
+fashion. There's a white felt hat that goes with this, and a long white
+coat, and Diana is going to take you over to town this morning to get
+white shoes and gloves and a veil."
+
+"I thought we were to lunch on Bobbie Tucker's yacht."
+
+"We were--but Bobbie has just telephoned that his yacht has to go to the
+yard for repairs--something happened last night--so Justin will take us
+for a ride."
+
+"Oh," said Bettina. "Mr. Ford?"
+
+"Yes. Justin has put his car at our disposal. He'll drive us to-day, but
+when he can't there's the chauffeur--it's very kind of him."
+
+"He's awfully good looking," said Bettina in a cool little voice, "but
+don't you think he's terribly conceited, Mrs. Martens?"
+
+Sophie nodded. "He's been spoiled. But back of it all he's a man. His
+lightness is on the surface. I know, for he was in Berlin when my
+husband was living. I saw the other side then. He was poor; it was
+before he came so unexpectedly into his uncle's money. You know the old
+man and his son were drowned in a dreadful accident. Justin was studying
+aviation when we first knew him. He lived in shabby rooms, and ate at
+shabby little places, and he used to come in the afternoons to call on
+me, and I'd fill him up with thick bread and butter and coffee, and we'd
+talk for hours of America. He was lonely poor lad, and I was like a big
+sister. I shall never forget one bitter cold afternoon, when he came in
+with his hands all red and rough, and with a hoarse cough, and I had the
+maid bring him a bowl of soup hot from the kitchen, and he tried to make
+a joke of it, but his voice broke, and presently he said, 'Dear big
+sister, some day I can thank you, but not now.'
+
+"And when my husband died," she went on, softly, "he did thank me in a
+most generous way. He had just received his fortune when he heard of
+my--trouble. He sent a wonderful cross to mark where my husband
+sleeps--and I could have afforded only a little stone--and there are
+flowers every week, even when I am far away, and there will always be
+flowers because of his great generosity."
+
+Here was a background for the light-hearted young Justin which appealed
+to Bettina's imagination. "Why, how lovely," she said with her eyes
+shining; "he didn't seem like that to me. He seemed so--shallow."
+
+"But he isn't," Sophie defended; "if it had not been for him and for
+Diana I should have lost heart many times--the world knows Justin as a
+rich young man, ready for a good time, but I know him as the Knight of
+the Tender Heart."
+
+"How old is he?"
+
+"Twenty-six. I didn't realize until I reached here that he was flying
+again. He does such dangerous things. I saw the aeroplane yesterday
+morning, and found out afterward that he was up--and since then my heart
+seems to stop every time I think of him in the air----"
+
+With all the optimism of youth, Bettina tried to reassure her.
+
+"He said last night that he was very careful. He wants to take me up."
+
+"Oh, don't ever do anything so dreadful."
+
+"I couldn't if I wanted to. Anthony made me promise last night that I
+wouldn't----"
+
+She said it with a comfortable sense of her lover's care for her; "I'd
+rather ride any day with Anthony in his little car."
+
+"My dear," Sophie said with some hesitation, "I'm going to suggest that
+except to Diana and myself, you try not to seem too much interested
+in--your doctor--the world might suspect--and you don't want to announce
+your engagement yet, Diana tells me----"
+
+Bettina shrugged her white shoulders. "I don't care if everybody knows,"
+she said; "but Diana thought that Anthony's friends might like to get
+acquainted with me first. But if you could know what he's been to me,
+Mrs. Martens--why, when I waked this morning it seemed like a dream to
+think that I wasn't in the top floor of the old Lane house, with Miss
+Matthews making her breakfast coffee over an alcohol stove, and a little
+impatient because I hadn't the toast ready, and with the prospect ahead
+of me of another lonely day, when I should try to read and try not to
+think, and miss mother until I nearly died.
+
+"Do you wonder that I love him?" She came up to Mrs. Martens and put her
+hands on her shoulders. "He's so wonderful and good--and he loves
+me----"
+
+Sophie could not meet the frank young eyes. "It's nice that you feel
+that way," she said, "and I hope you don't mind what I said--it was only
+that it might save you some future--embarrassment."
+
+"I'll be careful," said Bettina, "only I'm perfectly sure that everybody
+will know every time I look at Anthony that he's the one man in the
+world for me. You can't imagine how uninteresting other men seem beside
+him--and then his manner, isn't it lovely and protecting and--sure?"
+
+Sophie had a sudden sense of the comedy which was intermingled with the
+tragic of the situation. Diana and Bettina each harped incessantly on
+one string, "Anthony, Anthony, Anthony," and she must play listener to
+their ecstatic songs of praise.
+
+During the trip to town, Bettina sat beside Justin.
+
+"Since Bobbie's yacht is out of commission," suggested Justin, "why not
+extend our ride up the North Shore road? There's a war-ship anchored
+just off Beverly, and a tea room where we can have lunch."
+
+"I must stop at the sanatorium first," said Diana. "Anthony has a
+patient there who is to be operated on. She's a little young thing, and
+she's afraid, and I want to take her some lilacs. I told Jane to pick
+some and have them ready when we returned, so perhaps you'd better go
+first to our house, and then to the sanatorium, then we can do as we
+please----"
+
+"A sanatorium," said Justin to Bettina, "always used to suggest vague
+horrors. But Dr. Anthony's doesn't. He has a wonderful way with his
+patients, puts their hands to work, because it's their minds that make
+them sick; they weave and make pottery. The last time I was there an
+anxious-eyed, beautifully-gowned woman was working on a rug, with three
+rabbits as a design. She was having trouble with the bunnies' ears when
+Dr. Blake came up.
+
+"'I simply can't do it, doctor,' she said, and began to cry.
+
+"Anthony stood very still for a moment, then in his quiet, strong voice,
+he said, 'Dear lady, it must be done--for your soul's sake.'
+
+"She looked up at him in a startled way. 'Why my soul?' she asked. 'It's
+my body that's sick.'
+
+"He shook his head. 'It's deeper than that,' he answered; 'you've lost
+your grip because life has never meant labor to you. The people who work
+have healthy minds and healthy bodies. Those who do not, waver between
+weakness and wickedness. That's what's the matter with society
+to-day--that's what's the matter with you. You must finish your bunnies'
+ears, therefore, for the sake of your soul--your body will respond----'
+
+"She went back to her loom," Justin continued, "with a different look on
+her face. The lines were smoothed out from her forehead. Neither of them
+had seemed to notice that I was there. It was a psychological moment
+when the doctor had to speak, and it was wonderful to hear him talk like
+that."
+
+Bettina's puzzled eyes met his. "Oh, but do you think that people have
+to work to be happy?" she said. "I hate work. I like to be warm and
+comfortable, and have pretty clothes, and--everything."
+
+"Of course you do," said Justin, responding to her mood, lightly, "but
+you don't want to get Dr. Blake after you--he preaches a gospel of
+endeavor."
+
+"Oh!" There was a note of dismay in Bettina's voice. "But not all of us
+can be bees. Some of us must be the butterflies."
+
+Justin spoke, somewhat seriously: "I've been a butterfly for three
+years, and I give you my word I'm not getting much out of it. Seeing
+Mrs. Martens has brought back the days when I worked over there in
+Germany to get the money to finish my studies. Has she told you how I
+used to go to her and drink her delicious coffee and eat thick bread and
+butter, and bask in her sympathy until I got the courage to go on again?
+Yet I felt all the time that I was getting somewhere, and here I'm
+stagnating----"
+
+Bettina settled herself back comfortably in her cushioned seat. "Well, I
+don't think it's anything to worry about. It seems perfectly wonderful
+to me not to have anything to do--if I had mother back," her voice
+trembled, "I wouldn't care how much I had to work for her--but after
+she--left me, everything seemed so--so sordid, and hard--and----Oh, I
+hated it--and then----" She drew herself up sharply.
+
+"Then----?" Justin prompted her.
+
+"Diana came," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "and now
+everything will be different."
+
+Justin had a baffled sense of some mystery from the solution of which he
+was shut out, but he merely said, heartily, "I hope you'll stay
+forever," and felt his heart leap as the ends of her white veil
+fluttered against his lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HARBOR LIGHT
+
+
+Anthony's sanatorium was an enlargement of an old mansion which had
+belonged to his grandfather. The wide green lawns swept down to the sea.
+There was an orchard to the left of the house, and to the right a rose
+garden, and the barn had been turned into a weaving room.
+
+Within the house everything was restful and harmonious. Money had been
+spent without stint to produce beauty in its most subtle expression;
+each window framed a view of sea or sky or of sunlighted trees; the
+walls, the hangings, the rugs were of that ashes-of-rose tint which give
+light to an interior without glare.
+
+Diana, entering, with her arms full of lilacs, was met by a nurse.
+
+"Dr. Blake wants you at once," she said; "he's in his office."
+
+"Take these, Betty." Diana thrust the lilacs into the girl's arms.
+"Perhaps you'd better go back and sit in the car with Justin and
+Sophie, or you can wait in the reception room. I won't be long."
+
+But she was longer than she had anticipated. The seconds lengthened into
+minutes, and the minutes in quarters and into half hours. Justin came in
+once and found Bettina sitting stiffly on the edge of a chair with the
+flowers in her arms.
+
+"Come out and we'll take a spin across the causeway, while we wait," he
+said.
+
+Bettina shook her head. "Diana said she wouldn't be long. I don't see
+what's keeping her."
+
+"There's that operation this morning, you know, on the girl with
+appendicitis. And Diana has always been a great help with Anthony's
+patients. He told me that when she went to Europe her loss was felt
+deeply here----"
+
+"But the girl--with appendicitis?" Bettina's face was white. "Is she
+afraid----?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, I should be afraid. I--I don't see how Anthony can do it."
+
+"Do what?"
+
+"Operate on such a little scared thing----" She was shivering.
+
+"You mustn't stay here," Justin insisted; "you'll get nervous, you
+know, and all that; you really mustn't stay--you weren't made to have
+your mind on such things."
+
+"But Diana's mind is on them."
+
+"Diana is--different."
+
+That Diana was different was being demonstrated at that very moment in
+an upper room, where a little white slip of a girl had welcomed her with
+a wailing cry--"I'm afraid."
+
+"My dear," Diana bent over the bed, "there's nothing to be afraid of,
+not with your doctor."
+
+"But--if I should die."
+
+"You're not going to die."
+
+"But how do you know?"
+
+"Because your good doctor has said so--and he knows----"
+
+"But sometimes people do--die."
+
+Diana signed to the nurse to go out, and then she knelt by the bed.
+
+"Dear child," she said, softly, "life is such a short journey for all of
+us, and beyond is a wonder land. When I was a little girl I used to wish
+that I might die, and I thought that my lonely little soul might sail
+and sail in a silver boat until I came to the shores of that far country
+where I should find my father and mother waiting. I was such a dreary
+little orphan, and I wanted love. And I knew that in that country Love
+waited for me--as it is waiting for you. Would it be so hard to go after
+all the pain, if Love willed it so?"
+
+"I hadn't thought of it that way."
+
+"Then think of it now. But most of all think of life, and of what it
+will mean to you when wise Dr. Blake has made you well. And think of
+this, too, that when you wake up from your long sleep there will be a
+bunch of white lilacs right here on this little table--to welcome you
+back to the world--will you promise to think of the white lilacs until
+you go to sleep?"
+
+She was talking against time, trying to get the tense look out of the
+girl's eyes. And now she was rewarded by the lowered lids and the
+relaxing of the little figure in her arms.
+
+"I am going to think of the lilacs," the girl whispered. "Are you very
+sure they will be there?"
+
+"Very sure, dear."
+
+"Then I'm ready----"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Diana, going out, met Anthony.
+
+"She's all right," she said. "I'm glad you had me come.
+
+"She confided in me at once. She just needed her mind diverted, and I
+turned it on white lilacs. I will have a bunch for her when she wakes,
+and she is going to think of them. Is there really any danger, Anthony?"
+
+"Scarcely any--and there was no choice. She couldn't live without it."
+
+"How wonderful that you can save life, Anthony."
+
+"In saving others I save myself, Diana. It has kept me in these later
+years from--chaos----"
+
+Something in his voice made Diana say, quickly, "Betty is down-stairs.
+Poor child, she has waited for a long time. Can you come down?"
+
+"No. She ought not to be here, Diana."
+
+"She would come. I think she hoped to see you. And why shouldn't she
+come? Your work is here."
+
+"She isn't fitted for it. She is born for the brightness of life, not
+for its shadows. I fancy if she could see me in my operating outfit that
+she'd look upon me as something between a brute and a butcher. Poor
+child!" His laugh was grim.
+
+Diana's progress down the corridor partook of the nature of an ovation.
+From one room to another she went, and was welcomed by patients, many of
+whom made periodical visits to "Harbor Light"--which was the
+picturesque name Anthony had given his house because, as he explained,
+it was to be a beacon to such derelicts as drifted there. There were men
+and women of wealth who came to be fortified for another season of
+excitement, and there were men and women to whom the doctor gave lodging
+and his skill without financial recompense. But no one knew to whom such
+charity was extended, and all were equal in care and treatment.
+
+Most of the nurses, too, had been there long enough to know the
+inspiration and uplift which was brought by the gracious lady in the
+white gown.
+
+When the patients asked, "Who is she?" the reply was whispered, "Diana
+Gregory. Everybody hopes she'll marry the doctor. He's dead in love with
+her."
+
+At last Diana slipped away, promising to come again soon to look at the
+weaving, to see the new pottery--
+
+"But not now," she insisted, brightly; "there's some one waiting for me
+down-stairs."
+
+She found Bettina still sitting stiffly on the edge of the chair. She
+had sent Justin back to Sophie, and a nurse had taken away the lilacs.
+All the glory had gone out of her morning when Anthony had asked for
+Diana.
+
+"Why didn't he want me?" she demanded, when Diana came toward her with
+an eager apology. "Why didn't Anthony want me?"
+
+"My dear, he always wants you, but there's an operation on now."
+
+"On that girl with appendicitis?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, how can he do it, Diana? I think it's dreadful--to--to hurt
+people----"
+
+"He doesn't hurt them, dear."
+
+"But it's horrid. I--I hate it."
+
+"Betty!"
+
+"I--I shan't ever let him talk about it to me." The child's breath was
+coming quickly. "Never--never--never, when we are married--and I'm going
+to make him give it up----"
+
+"Give it up?" Diana's voice rang clear and sharp. "Give what up?"
+
+"His surgery. I didn't mind the other--when he came to mother and gave
+her medicine in bottles--but this is different, and the women
+here----Why, Diana, some of them looked in at the door, and they
+were--freaks."
+
+"They're sick, dear."
+
+"I don't like sick things. I loved mother, and I could stand it, but
+Anthony mustn't let me see such people--not now, so soon after----!"
+
+"Hush, Betty! Oh, you shouldn't have come in. We'll go now and have a
+long ride with Justin, and to-night you'll see Anthony--and some day
+you'll realize what a great man he is."
+
+"I know he's a great surgeon, and, of course, I'll have to put up with
+it--but I shall hate it just the same, Diana."
+
+Put up with it--oh, Diana! For years she had urged him toward this end,
+that he might stand at the head of that profession which combats death
+with a flaming sword. For years she had watched him struggle upward, and
+had gloried, not only in his fame, but in his power of healing.
+
+Together the two women went down the path.
+
+"Are you tired of waiting?" Diana asked as they came up to the car.
+
+"Justin took me for a little ride," said Sophie, "and I sat in front
+with him. We tried to get Bettina to go, but she wouldn't. She thought
+she ought to wait for you."
+
+"I wish I hadn't waited," said Bettina, as Justin helped her in. "I--I
+don't like sick people, and I hate that queer smell----"
+
+"Ether," said Justin, promptly; "it's because of the operation."
+
+He leaned forward, and the car shot out toward the causeway. The way led
+first through a street overarched with elms; beyond the elms there was a
+vista of sea and sky. A fragrant wind blew from the blossoming trees,
+and swept Bettina's veil away from her face so that it billowed above
+her hat like the wings of some great bird.
+
+The hospital was behind; ahead was the long white road. Justin was
+smiling down into her eyes. For the first time she noticed his look of
+joyous youth.
+
+"I begin to understand why it is that you fly," she said, as they came
+out upon the causeway and saw the stretch of harbor beyond.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because you feel that you must get up high enough to flap your wings."
+
+"I could do that on a barn-yard fence, couldn't I--like Chantecler, and
+make the sun rise?"
+
+"You could never get up early enough."
+
+"I flew past your window at six."
+
+"How did you know it was my window?"
+
+Justin glanced down at her. Her soft white hat was pulled low, so that
+it almost hid her eyes, but through the veil he could see that they were
+softly shining. Her lips were red, and her cheeks touched by the wind
+with vivid color.
+
+"I knew--because my heart told me," he said, ardently.
+
+But she did not blush. "You knew it because you know which is Diana's
+guest room," she stated.
+
+"Were you awake?"
+
+"No. I am never awake at six--I love to be lazy."
+
+"Don't tell that to Dr. Anthony or he'll set you to weaving. You know
+what I told you; he said that idleness leads to weakness or
+wickedness----"
+
+"I haven't had time to see what it leads to," Bettina informed him.
+"I've always been so busy. I'm going to play for a while."
+
+"Will you play with me?" Justin challenged her.
+
+Shining eyes met shining eyes--youth responded to youth.
+
+"It will be glorious," said Bettina, meeting his mood.
+
+They laughed together, the care-free laughter of their golden age.
+Diana, catching the echo of it, waked from a reverie which had to do
+with Anthony back there in a big, bare room, contending with skilful and
+steady hands against the evil forces which sought to destroy; saving a
+life, giving to a little unknown girl a future of hope and of health.
+
+Every breath that she had drawn since she had left him had been a prayer
+that his hand might not fail, that his nerves might be like steel--she
+felt as if her heart were beating with his to uphold him, as if she
+could bear him on the wings of love and be his talisman against harm.
+
+Yet in front of her was the girl he was to marry, laughing lightly up
+into the eyes of a boy, unconscious of her lover's need, unconscious of
+everything except that she was young and free from care--and that the
+morning world was beautiful!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE EMPTY HOUSE
+
+
+When the doctor came that night he was tired. The day had been a hard
+one, and he felt weighed down by the woes of those weak folk who bore so
+heavily on his strength.
+
+He found Bettina alone. Diana and Sophie had gone to play bridge across
+the harbor, and only Delia in the garden and Peter Pan on the porch
+remained for chaperonage.
+
+Bettina greeted her betrothed soberly, and held up her face to be
+kissed. "I said things about you yesterday," she confessed, as she and
+Anthony settled themselves on the porch where they could look out upon
+the lights. "I said things about you to Diana, and afterward we went to
+the Pirate House with Justin Ford for lunch, and I flirted with him----"
+
+"What did you say about me?"
+
+"That I hated your surgery--that it seemed dreadful."
+
+He had been smiling, but he grew grave at once.
+
+"You can't separate me from my work, child; you must take us together."
+
+"Of course; I know that now. Diana was talking to me after we came home
+from our ride. She told me some of the wonderful things you had done,
+and of how people almost said their prayers to you."
+
+"Not quite that--but it's my reward that so many of my patients are my
+friends because I have helped them."
+
+"And Diana said that if I loved you I'd be glad--to let you--cut people
+up."
+
+In spite of himself he laughed. She was irresistible.
+
+"I shan't exact that of you. But at least you must not worry."
+
+"And I won't have to live there?" anxiously.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At the sanatorium?"
+
+"Of course not. You'll live over there."
+
+He pointed to a jutting rock on the top of which a big house loomed
+white in the moonlight.
+
+"There? Oh, I'd love to go over it. Couldn't we, now?"
+
+He hesitated. "Perhaps it would be better to wait till there are
+others." Then, seeing her disappointment, he agreed. "Well, if Delia
+will come too."
+
+"Delia?"
+
+"To open the rooms." He had not the heart to tell her how sharp were the
+tongues of the gossips of the little town.
+
+So Delia, a little later, limped after them with Peter following,
+confidently.
+
+"And you flirted with Justin," Anthony remarked on the way over.
+
+"Yes. In the little tea room. Diana and Mrs. Martens sat at one table,
+and Mr. Ford and I at the other--and he was so funny--and I----Well,
+_any one_ looking on might have thought I was in earnest."
+
+"What did Diana think?"
+
+"Oh, she knows how I feel about you----"
+
+"And Justin, does he know?"
+
+"Of course not. It's not announced, you know."
+
+"But if he should take you in earnest."
+
+"Silly," Bettina tucked her hand in his arm, "nobody takes me in
+earnest--but you----"
+
+Her hesitation was charming, but he did not respond ardently, and
+perhaps she missed something in his manner, for presently she asked,
+"Are you jealous?"
+
+"My dear, no. Children must play----"
+
+She sighed a little. "Am I such a child?"
+
+He laughed again. "Of course, you're a mere baby--but a dear baby, Betty
+mine."
+
+And with that she was content.
+
+The big house was not furnished.
+
+"I am going to put in the things which were in the old house before I
+turned it into a sanatorium. My grandfather was a sea captain, and I
+have a model of a ship carved by one of his sailors out of soup bones,
+and there are two great china tureens in the shape of swans, and some
+ivories and queer embroidered screens that I wouldn't take anything for.
+It's a sort of jumble for a modern residence, but I like it. And I have
+had the house built in a style which will be in keeping with my
+belongings. It's rocky and rugged and there's a fireplace in every room.
+I like to burn logs for cheerfulness even when there's a furnace--and to
+come home to the light of them on winter nights."
+
+"I love pretty new things," Bettina informed him. "May I have all white
+for my room? With ivory things on my dresser with silver monograms,
+and--white fur rugs?"
+
+Her room!
+
+It came to Anthony, with the force of a blow, that there was no room in
+the big house for Bettina.
+
+Why, that room was Diana's--that room which looked out on Minot's. He
+had thought of her as inhabiting it. He had never meant that the great
+light should say, "I love you," to Bettina.
+
+For months, even when he felt that he had lost Diana, her spirit had
+seemed to dwell in the place he had planned for her. Whenever he had
+entered her room it had not seemed bare, for his imagination had filled
+it with the furniture which had been his grandmother's wedding set--the
+big canopied bed, the winged chair on the hearth, the quaint lyre-legged
+sewing table by the window. And on the other side of the hearth would be
+another chair--his own. And in that room he had seen Diana, his bride,
+in the moonlight; his wife, waiting in the winged chair to welcome him
+after a weary day.
+
+And now this pretty child--and Diana banished? What had he done? What
+dreadful thing had he done?
+
+Bettina, unconscious, said pleasant things about the living-room, the
+library, the great hall, the broad stairway--
+
+As yet there was no connection for lighting, so they carried candles,
+Anthony holding one aloft for himself and Bettina, and Delia coming
+after with a taper. Peter, like a flash of flame, slipped ahead of
+Delia and was lost in the shadows.
+
+They went into every room on the second floor before they entered the
+one which faced Minot's. To him it was the Holy of Holies, but Bettina
+stepped in boldly.
+
+It was a great high-ceiled chamber with its distant corners made darker
+by the moonlight. Through the wide window which faced the south was a
+vast expanse of sky and sea. Anthony's house stood near the end of the
+harbor, so that across the causeway was the open water, a stretch of
+limitless blue.
+
+Bettina shivered. "It's so big and dark."
+
+"When it's furnished and the lights are on it will seem different."
+
+Delia, arriving at that moment, added her contribution to the
+conversation.
+
+"Miss Diana came over yesterday. Them's her white lilacs on the shelf."
+
+The doctor held his candle higher. The flowers, in a great bowl of gray
+pottery, showed ghostly outlines beneath the flickering flame. To
+Anthony the air seemed thick and faint with their perfume.
+
+"Let us go," he said to Bettina, quickly, and with his hand on her arm
+he led her away and shut the door.
+
+Diana and Sophie, coming home at half-past ten, found the lovers on the
+porch, and the four talked together until Anthony said "Good-bye."
+
+He made a professional call in a side street and found himself,
+afterward, turning toward the big empty house on the rocks. In that
+south room Diana's lilacs were wasting their sweetness, and he coveted
+the subtle suggestion they gave of her presence there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Diana, helping Delia to lock up, asked, "Where's Peter?"
+
+"Goodness knows," said Delia; "he followed me when we went over to the
+doctor's house, and I ain't seen him since."
+
+Diana turned and looked at her. "The doctor's house? Who went?"
+
+"Dr. Anthony and Miss Betty and me. They asked me. She hadn't ever seen
+it, and he wanted to show it to her."
+
+Diana felt her heart stand still.
+
+"Did you go--into every room, Delia?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+So he had taken little Betty there. They had entered that room to which,
+that very morning, she had carried white lilacs, moved by some impulse
+to call it her own until some one else should have the right to claim
+it.
+
+"I'll look up Peter," she told Delia, hastily. "You needn't wait for
+me."
+
+The town clock struck half-past eleven as she went through the
+garden--wraith-like in her long white wrap.
+
+"Peter," she called softly, "Peter, Peter."
+
+Following the path over the rocks, she came at last to the empty house.
+
+A faint mew sounded from within. She turned the knob, and found the door
+unlocked. "Peter," she called again, and the big cat came forth, his
+tail waving like a plume.
+
+Diana, facing the darkness of the great hall, felt impelled to enter, to
+slip silently up the stairs, to stand on the threshold of the
+moonlighted chamber, whence came the perfume of white lilacs.
+
+And as she stood there, she saw, with a sudden leap of the heart, that
+Anthony was before her. Silhouetted against the wide space of the open
+window he was looking out at the flashing light.
+
+She put her hand to her throat. She stepped back as if to escape. Then,
+swayed by an impulse which cast prudence to the winds, she spoke his
+name.
+
+"Anthony!"
+
+"Diana!"
+
+He had turned from the window, and was peering through the dimness. He
+came toward her. She held out her hands to keep him back.
+
+"Oh, please--no--no----"
+
+But he took her in his arms.
+
+When he let her go his face was white.
+
+"There is no excuse for me," he said. "I know that. I've given my word
+of honor to that little child--who trusts me. Yet--this room belongs to
+you. Before you came to-night I touched the lilacs with my lips, and it
+seemed to me as if they were your lips--that I touched. And when I
+turned and saw you--white--like a bride--on the threshold--it was as I
+had seen you, night after night--in my dreams. You belong here and no
+other, Diana!"
+
+What she said in reply Diana could never remember with any great
+distinctness. She only knew that she was trying to hold on as best she
+could to the best that was within her. Anthony in this moment of
+weakness was hers. Whatever she did now would bring him to her or send
+him away--perhaps forever. She struggled to think clearly--to raise
+some barrier between his awakened passion and her own wild desire to
+take what the gods had placed within easy reach of her hand.
+
+Suddenly she found herself speaking. Her throat was dry and she was
+shaking from head to foot. But she was telling him that she had tried to
+use common sense. That she had asked Bettina to come to her hoping that
+there might be found some way out. But there _wasn't_ any way out, not
+any honorable way. And she didn't dare play Fate any longer. Not after
+to-night. Not after--_to-night_.
+
+Her voice broke.
+
+"Diana--dear girl----"
+
+He put both of his strong hands on her shoulders, and so they faced each
+other in the illumined night.
+
+"For just one little moment," he said, "we will have the truth. If I had
+not asked Betty you would have married me, Diana?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"If there is any honorable way in which I can release myself, will you
+marry me now?"
+
+She had a sudden vision of the slender, lonely child in shabby black as
+she had first seen her in the shadowy room.
+
+"No, oh, _no_," she whispered.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because there isn't any honorable way; because I should feel little and
+mean; because it would make me think less--of you, Anthony."
+
+Her eyes met his steadily. She was as pale as the spectral lilacs, whose
+perfume floated about them. But her nervous fears were gone. She knew
+now that they would triumph--she and Anthony--that they were not to
+leave the heights.
+
+When at last he spoke, it was in a moved voice. "If you were less than
+you are I should not love you so much. You know that, Diana?"
+
+"Yes, I know----"
+
+"In the years to come, what you have been to me will be my light--in the
+darkness----"
+
+Unable to speak, she held out her hands to him. He took them, and bent
+his head.
+
+With a little murmured cry she released herself, and flitted away into
+the engulfing darkness. The echoes of her swift descent came whispering
+up the stairs; in the distance a door was shut. The emptiness of the
+unfinished house seemed symbolic of the future which stretched before
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE GOLDEN AGE
+
+
+Justin Ford had not been unsuccessful with women. Many of them had liked
+him, and might have loved him if he had cared to make them, but until he
+met Bettina Dolce he had not cared.
+
+There was about Bettina, however, a certain remoteness which puzzled
+him. She responded to his advances with girlish gayety, but her cool
+sweet glance held no hint of self-consciousness, and beyond a certain
+point of light flirtation he had, as yet, dared not go.
+
+He pondered these things one morning as he worked on his delicate
+machine in the great shed with its wide opening toward the water.
+
+Why had little Bettina erected a barrier? She knew nothing of the arts
+of sophisticated coquetry, so he absolved her from any intention to
+rouse his interest. Was she unawakened? Was there another man?
+
+He laid down his pipe to think out that last startling proposition.
+There had been no men in her secluded life.
+
+Except Anthony Blake! Gracious Peter, could it be Anthony? There came to
+Justin, suddenly, a vision of Bettina in the shadowy room. Of her
+childish dependence upon the doctor, of her little claims of intimacy,
+her evident preference for the older man's society, her vehement denial
+the night of the dinner that there could be anything but friendship
+between Anthony and Diana.
+
+Putting, thus, two and two together, he decided that Bettina believed
+herself in love with Anthony. Yes, that was it--and Anthony--well, for
+Anthony there was just Diana!
+
+There you had it, and the only way to save Bettina and, incidentally,
+himself from heartbreak was to take things into his own hands, and play
+Prince to this exquisite Cinderella.
+
+Unconsciously his mind assumed a sort of King Cophetua attitude toward
+the charming Beggar Maid. He found himself humming:
+
+    "In robe and crown the king stept down,
+     To meet and greet her on her way----"
+
+Justin knocked the ashes out of his pipe and put it in his pocket.
+There was no time like the present, and he at once went toward Diana's,
+"clothed all in leather," like the old man in the nursery rhyme.
+
+He found Bettina in the garden. She wore a strong little suit of blue
+serge with a crimson silk scarf knotted under her sailor collar. On her
+fair head was a shady hat. She stood by the stone wall looking
+expectantly down the road. But it was not Justin whom she expected,
+although she smiled at him, and gave him her hand.
+
+"Did you meet Miss Matthews?" she inquired.
+
+"Miss Matthews?"
+
+"You know. You met her the first time you saw me."
+
+"I can only remember that time that I met--you."
+
+She laughed. "How nicely you say it."
+
+"But you do not take me seriously."
+
+"Does anybody take you seriously?"
+
+"Kind people do."
+
+"And I'm not kind?"
+
+"Not to me--you just give me remnants and fragments of your time. I have
+hardly seen you for three days."
+
+"Nobody has seen me," she informed him. "I've been doing all sorts of
+stunts in the shops. I was in town yesterday with Mrs. Martens, and you
+should see my hats----"
+
+"I'd rather see your hair. Do you know how lovely it is with the
+sunshine on it----"
+
+"Silly--wait till you see my dream of a picture hat--with yellow
+roses--to be worn with a shadow lace robe over a primrose slip."
+
+"White and gold--Sophie was foxy to choose that," he said.
+
+"Foxy--why?"
+
+"Oh, the pinks and blues don't suit you. You need the unusual tints.
+That amethyst frock you had on the other night fitted in with the
+twilight, and the old garden and the lilacs; and in the yellow and white
+you'll be a primrose, flashing in the sun."
+
+"Mrs. Martens has the most wonderful taste," she informed him. "There's
+a tea-gown of white crape with a little lace wrap--I don't know when
+I'll wear it, but Mrs. Martens insisted--and a new gown for the yacht
+club dance to-morrow night,--and you should see my shoes--five pairs of
+them."
+
+"Such richness!" He smiled into her eager eyes. "Did Diana help you
+choose?"
+
+"Diana's away--on business in the city. That's why I'm free to do as I
+please to-day."
+
+"Are you free to do as you please----?" He seized his opportunity. "Then
+come up to the shed and see my air-ship. We can have a little flight
+across the harbor."
+
+She shook her head. "Oh, I can't. I have an engagement with Captain
+Stubbs and Miss Matthews. We are going fishing in the captain's boat,
+and have lunch on the rocks later."
+
+Justin looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then he said, "Three's a
+crowd. You ought to have four."
+
+"Are you asking--to be invited?"
+
+"Please----"
+
+"But it's Captain Stubbs' party."
+
+"I am perfectly sure that if you'll give me a certificate of good
+character Captain Stubbs will take me aboard."
+
+She seemed to be summing up the situation. "I'm not sure," she said, at
+last, "that you'd fit in----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, the captain's old-fashioned, and Miss Matthews is old-fashioned,
+and I love them both, and so I don't care. But you don't love them."
+
+He flushed. "I see. You're afraid that I'll make them feel
+uncomfortable. I am sorry you should think that. I'm not quite a cad,
+you know."
+
+There were sparks in his eyes. He wondered that he should be so angry.
+But he was desperately angry with this cool little creature who didn't
+seem to care.
+
+And now she was passing frigid judgment on his blazing words. "Of course
+you aren't a cad. I didn't say you were. But you aren't like Bobbie
+Tucker or Dr. Blake. They have always known these people, and they
+understand them. There are no class distinctions in a town like this,
+you know----"
+
+"Have I seemed such a prig to you?"
+
+She cocked her head on one side and considered him, "Not since I talked
+to Mrs. Martens about you. She told me how nice you were in Germany."
+
+In Germany; ye gods! Was he nice only in _Germany_?
+
+He stared at her blankly. He had a feeling that he would like to shake
+her; that he would like to--kiss her.
+
+In the midst of her conflicting emotions little Miss Matthews arrived,
+and behind her steamed Captain Stubbs.
+
+Justin, murmuring inarticulately, acknowledged the introduction to the
+captain, and greeted Miss Matthews.
+
+Miss Matthews was very prim and trim in a white shirt-waist and stiff
+collar. She had a gray sweater over her arm, and a green veil was tied
+over her soft felt hat. She carried in her hand a brown Boston bag, the
+contents of which she explained to Bettina.
+
+"I told the captain I would bring some home-made pickles."
+
+Justin gave immediate attention.
+
+"Miss Matthews," he said, "do you mean to say that you three will eat
+fish chowder and home-made pickles, and that I shan't be there?"
+
+The little captain, in a glow of hospitality, said heartily, "Now, look
+here; can't you come with us?"
+
+Justin showed his white teeth in a flashing smile. "It's an invitation
+that I've been fishing for all the morning, but Miss Dolce won't ask
+me."
+
+"Don't you want him?" the little captain demanded of Bettina.
+
+"Of course," in the tone of one to whom it didn't really matter.
+"Perhaps he can help you with the boat, captain."
+
+Justin, carrying Miss Matthews' bag, helping the captain over with the
+supplies, lifting Bettina over the side of the boat with strong arms
+which yearned to show their strength, was in a mental attitude far
+removed from his King Cophetua mood of the earlier morning. He was at
+this moment a slave chained to Bettina's chariot wheel. And the strange
+part of it was that he gloried in his chains! He realized that he was
+going out with her on a forced invitation, but he was going! And the sea
+was like sapphire, and the sun shone!
+
+Little Miss Matthews, looking back afterward on that glorified fishing
+trip, was forced to confess that Justin left nothing undone for her
+which could be done. Never in her life had she been deferred to by such
+a charming youth, never had her little budget of small talk received
+such respectful consideration, never had she been waited on, hand and
+foot, by such a cavalier!
+
+Rarely did Justin's eyes stray to where Bettina sat beside the captain,
+chatting to him in her confiding voice, making his old heart happy by
+her interest in his sea-seasoned reminiscences.
+
+It was really a most altruistic performance. One might have imagined
+that for Justin there was just one woman in the world--Miss Matthews;
+and for Bettina, just one man--Captain Stubbs. Yet, as the little boat
+rounded the lighthouse point and came into the rougher waters outside,
+young hearts were thrilling to the sound of young voices, and the music
+of the spheres was being played to the accompaniment of beating waves.
+
+When at last they anchored, the fishing was really incidental. To be
+sure it was exciting, and they had an excellent catch, but Bettina's hat
+was off and Justin could see her hair. And Justin, standing up in the
+bow of the boat with his line outflung, was, in Bettina's eyes, more
+than ever like a young Olympian god.
+
+It was the same at lunch time. They landed on a crescent-shaped strip of
+beach, backed by rocky walls, where there was plenty of driftwood for
+their fire. There the captain gave his mind to the making of chowder,
+and Miss Matthews rendered expert service in the cutting up of onions
+and potatoes, and in the frying of salt pork.
+
+Justin opened the pickle bottle and did other prosaic and ungodlike
+acts, and Bettina laid the table on the sands like a real girl instead
+of a transported nymph, yet each saw the other through a golden haze
+which magnified the most trivial act and made it important.
+
+Thus, when Bettina set four blue bowls at exact geometric distances on
+the cloth, Justin thought not of the bowls, but of Bettina's slim white
+hands; and likewise Justin, gathering driftwood, commended himself to
+Bettina not for his industry, but for his swinging walk and square
+shoulders.
+
+For several days Bettina had been heavy-hearted. She had not seen
+Anthony. He had called her up over the telephone, and had made his
+excuses; there was the little girl with the appendicitis and the old man
+with the pneumonia--how Bettina hated the repetition. He would come and
+see her as soon as possible, he promised, but he had not come.
+
+Diana, too, had not been like herself. On the morning after Bettina's
+visit to Anthony's house she had not appeared until luncheon. She had
+looked like a ghost, and had been very busy all the afternoon. She had
+hinted at affairs which would take her to town for a time, and finally
+she had gone away. Even Mrs. Martens had seemed disturbed and restless.
+Hence Bettina had welcomed the invitation from Captain Stubbs. Justin's
+high spirits, his evident delight in her society, his anger at her
+rebuffs--these things soothed and flattered her. Above all there was the
+charm of his glorious youth. She found herself swayed to his mood. Might
+she not for one little fleeting moment dance to the tune that he piped?
+
+Letting herself go, therefore, she was at luncheon bewildering in her
+beauty. Justin's mocking eyes grew tender as he watched her. Here was no
+pretty Beggar Maid for masculine condescension, but rather a little
+goddess to be put on a pedestal and worshiped.
+
+Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews, unconscious of the forces which were
+charging the air about them, ate their chowder and took their enjoyment
+placidly.
+
+"A fish chowder," said the little captain, "never tastes so good in the
+house as it does out-of-doors, with the cod fresh caught, and with the
+smell of the sea for sauce."
+
+Bettina passed her bowl for more.
+
+"It is delicious," she said; "everything is--lovely."
+
+"Isn't it?" said Justin. "There never was such a feast--there never was
+such a day----!"
+
+Yet there had been many such days; there had been many such feasts. But
+not for them! It was the golden age of their existence. The moment of
+youth and joy, unmarred by disillusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+STORM SIGNALS
+
+
+The wind, rising, blew Miss Matthews' green veil into a long thin wisp
+which flapped toward the northwest.
+
+The captain, noticing it, glanced over his shoulder.
+
+"We'll have a storm before we know it," he said. "It's dark enough over
+there in the south----"
+
+Above the horizon rose the clouds, black with wind; the waves began to
+murmur and run in, in long lines of white.
+
+"There'll be no getting back now," said the captain.
+
+Justin's eyes searched the land for shelter. Beyond the rocky wall was a
+hillside of hemlock, which formed part of the estate of a magnate from
+the West. Beyond the trees was a great house, shut up now, and in the
+hands of a caretaker. Nothing else seemed to offer refuge from the
+storm.
+
+"What do you think, captain?" he asked. "Had we better try to make the
+house?"
+
+"I've got my oilskins," the captain said. "I'll stay here, but perhaps
+you folks had better run in."
+
+Miss Matthews protested. "I've lived too long on this coast to mind a
+storm. I'll wrap up in my rubber coat and let it rain. But we'd better
+get that child in somewhere; she's scared of storms."
+
+"Are you?" Justin asked Bettina.
+
+"If there's going to be wind," she said, "I'm awfully afraid."
+
+"Then we'll run for it," he told her; "up the hill to the house."
+
+As he helped her climb the rocks, they took a last glance back at the
+stolid pair who didn't mind storms. Captain Stubbs in brilliantly yellow
+new oilskins and Miss Matthews in a sad-colored waterproof coat sat side
+by side with their backs against the beached boat.
+
+"Perhaps we should have stayed with them," said Bettina, doubtfully, as
+Justin drew her up to his level.
+
+But Justin had no doubts. Ahead of them was the dimness of the hemlock
+forest; the solitude of the storm. He coveted the brief moments when
+they might be alone together.
+
+"Come," he urged, and they entered upon the darkness of the wood.
+
+As they sped along over the cushioned earth, Justin helped her strongly,
+half lifting her at times over the rough places.
+
+"Are you afraid?" he asked her, and she shook her head.
+
+With a roar and a rush the storm was upon them. For a few moments they
+were in the midst of chaos. The air was full of flying things, and the
+branches crashed and fell.
+
+To Bettina, emotionally tense, the real world had disappeared. She was a
+disembodied spirit, floating through infinite space with another spirit
+as joyous, as exalted, as triumphant as her own.
+
+When he asked her again, "Are you afraid?" and she again shook her head,
+it came to her, suddenly, that she was not afraid because she was with
+him. She felt no wonder that it was so. In this wild world there was no
+place for wonder. She and Justin were laughing madly as they raced. Her
+hair, loosed by the wind, streamed out behind her. Once it caught on a
+button of Justin's coat, and held her so close to him that, when he
+unwound it, she felt the quickened beating of his heart.
+
+As they again sped on, she felt as if never before had she been alive in
+such a radiant wonderful sense.
+
+"Are you afraid?" he asked for the third time, bending down to catch her
+answer.
+
+"It's glorious," she panted. Then as the rain came, he shielded her with
+his arm, and shouted:
+
+"We'll have to make a dash through the open; here's the house ahead!"
+
+The great house was closed and deserted, but they found a cloistered
+porch from which they could look out on the storm.
+
+Below them the trees were whipped and bent by the gale. Against the
+horizon the sea rose like a great gray wall. Straining their eyes, they
+could catch a glimmer of the captain's yellow coat on the strip of sand.
+
+"The worst of the wind is over," said Justin; "we were lucky to escape
+the heavy rain."
+
+Bettina, who was braiding her hair, looked up at him. "Wasn't it
+wonderful down there in the wood?"
+
+"Did you think it wonderful?"
+
+Something in his eyes made her say, hastily "I've never been out in a
+storm before."
+
+He did not reply at once. He was watching her slender fingers twist the
+shining strands.
+
+"Let me do that for you," he said, suddenly.
+
+"No, oh, no----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because." She walked away from him, and seated herself on a marble
+bench under one of the closed windows.
+
+He sat down beside her. "I didn't mean that impertinently; truly I did
+not. I used to braid my little sister's hair. She was lame and I took
+care of her, and, as I watched you, I thought of--my little sister."
+
+"Tell me about her."
+
+"There isn't much to tell, except that when I was a great hulking
+youngster, with only her to love--she died----"
+
+"Oh,--I'm so sorry----"
+
+He went on slowly, still watching her busy fingers "Since then I have
+never had a friend. Not the kind she was. Why, she used to love to
+listen to my boy's talk--of how I was going to be great, of how I was
+going to conquer the world,--and she has been dead ten years--and I have
+done nothing."
+
+It was a new Justin who spoke in this fashion. To Bettina he had always
+seemed as light as air, and she had enjoyed his frivolity, but now she
+felt something more than enjoyment,--a yearning to be of use to this
+big boy who was all alone, and who missed his little sister.
+
+Surely to be his friend need not interfere in any way with Anthony's
+claims. She loved Anthony and was going to marry him, of course. But
+friendship and love were different things. Why, Mrs. Martens was
+married, and she had been Justin's friend in Germany.
+
+She spoke her thought. "But Mrs. Martens?"
+
+"She was a dear--but she is older than I--and I stood a bit in awe of
+her--she sympathized with me--but she could not dream with me, and I
+wanted some one to share my dreams."
+
+Bettina's blue eyes were wistful. What a wonderful thing it would be to
+share somebody's dreams. She was perfectly sure that she did not share
+Anthony's. He had never told her of his dreams. Perhaps he didn't have
+any. His life was so practical and full of work, and then he was
+old--oh, yes, indeed, he was older than Mrs. Martens--and Justin had
+said that Sophie was too old to understand.
+
+She found herself asking, "What were your dreams?"
+
+"Shan't I bore you?"
+
+"No--please----"
+
+"Well, there was one dream which my little sister and I used to discuss
+as I braided her hair at night. It was a dream that some day I should be
+great. She had a different idea of greatness from mine, and we used to
+argue the question. I don't think she ever wanted me to be President of
+the United States or to hold high office; she wanted me to do something
+which would help humanity. She used to wish that I might preach or
+teach; she was such a good little thing. And I would tell her that none
+of these vocations were for me; I must win fame in a different way. I
+wanted to invent something which would make the world stare. Perhaps
+that's the reason I took up aviation after she died. I thought I might
+make some great advance on the inventions of other men. But the other
+men made them first, you see, and I've just frivoled and played. Yet, as
+I saw you braiding your hair, it brought back my little sister so
+vividly, and I wondered what she would think of me--now."
+
+For the first time in her life her heart was stirred by the maternal
+tenderness which is the heritage of good women. Her timid hand touched
+his sleeve, lightly.
+
+"I am sure," said her little voice, unsteadily, "that if she knew you
+now, she would think you were--very nice."
+
+"You darling," he was saying in his heart, but he dared not say it with
+his lips. And he went on as calmly as he could.
+
+"I wish I could make you see my little sister as I knew her. She was
+such a pale little thing, with pale gold hair, and a little narrow face,
+and pale blue eyes. When I began to read Tennyson, I found my little
+sister again in 'Elaine'--and do you know, I was half glad she didn't
+live to grow up. Some man might have hurt her as Lancelot hurt Elaine. I
+know I haven't realized her dreams for me--but I've tried to hold on a
+bit to her ideal of goodness, and it has kept me from things which might
+have made me less of a man----"
+
+She was thrilled as she had never been. Justin began to loom up in her
+mind's eye as the Knight of the Tender Heart--that was what Sophie had
+called him. And how wonderful that he should be telling her all this!
+
+"Then," he continued, "the money came to me, and since then I've been a
+butterfly. I have not made good use of my wealth. I have needed a
+friend, you see, to help me make my dreams come true."
+
+He looked down at her. "Would you?" he asked.
+
+"Be your friend?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, but I'm not good enough. I've always been a little selfish thing,
+except with mother. I loved her and I wasn't selfish with her. But I've
+wanted a good time, and I haven't cared for anything but my own
+pleasure. I'm not like your little sister, you see. I'm just a
+butterfly, too."
+
+"Oh, you--you're an angel," ardently.
+
+Again she was thrilled. Anthony had never said such things to her.
+Anthony had called her a child, and he had not needed her. And Justin
+wanted her friendship! All her awakened womanhood rose to meet his
+demand.
+
+So intent was she on her thought that she did not feel the cold. But her
+lips were blue, and she shivered as the wind swept around the corner.
+
+Justin jumped at once to his feet.
+
+"I'm a brute to keep you here. There must be some one around the place
+who can take us in."
+
+He left her, to come back presently with the news that there was a man
+down at the stables, and that there was a fire in the harness room. He
+brought a rain coat, and wrapped her in it, scolding himself all along
+the way for his neglect of her comfort.
+
+The stables of the Western magnate were vast and wonderful. They had
+been divorced somewhat from their original use as a place for horses,
+two-thirds of the space being given up to motor cars and electrics. But
+the riding horses were in their stalls, and, as Bettina entered, their
+heads went up.
+
+She stopped to pet them, then the groom led the way to the harness room.
+
+It was a picturesque place, with its lacquered leather, its shining
+brass, its racing trophies, blue ribbons, gold-handled whips and crops,
+silver cups and medals.
+
+"I'll telephone for my car," Justin said, "and send a boy down to
+Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews. They'll probably go back in the boat,
+now that the storm is over."
+
+With the message sent, and the smiling groom, pleased with Justin's
+generous tip, dismissed, the two were again alone.
+
+"This is better," said Justin, as they settled themselves in front of
+the fire. "Now you'll get some color in your cheeks."
+
+With her chin on her hand, she said slowly, "Do you know that nobody
+ever asked me to be his friend before?"
+
+"That's luck for me. There'll be no one else to share----"
+
+She glanced up at him with enchanting shyness. "The trouble with most
+men is, I imagine, that they don't want friendship--they want love, and
+that isn't easy for a woman to give, is it?"
+
+Silence, then at last, uncertainly, "I suppose not."
+
+"Any man can fall in love with a woman," she informed him, "but it seems
+to me that it must take certain kinds of men and women to be friends.
+That's why it seems so wonderful. Why, even if I married some one else,
+I could still be your friend, couldn't I?"
+
+"Ye-es. Oh, yes, of course."
+
+"Perhaps that's what I've missed all my life--the chance to really
+inspire some one. You know it's nice to feel that you're helping. And
+some men are so self-sufficient, so secure. You wouldn't feel that you'd
+dare to suggest. You'd only be a child to them--and while it might be
+nice to marry a man like that, it would be nice, too, to have the other
+kind for a friend."
+
+Of all the bewildering little creatures! If she married some other man,
+forsooth! He set his teeth. Well, she _shouldn't_ marry any other man.
+
+"Look here," he asked, suddenly, "have you ever been in love?"
+
+She nodded, all rosy color and drooped lashes. The unexpectedness of her
+answer made him hesitate, but finally he ventured, "How did it feel?"
+
+She considered gravely. "Why, it's comfortable to know that you'll
+always have some one to take care of you, some one who's tender and
+good--too good, perhaps----"
+
+Justin was perplexed. She had spoken in the present tense. Was it
+possible that her fancy was really held by Anthony? Had their wild race
+in the storm meant nothing to her? To him it had seemed a sort of
+spiritual mating, with the storm crashing out a brilliant bridal chorus.
+
+He leaned forward. "What you're talking of isn't love," he said, almost
+roughly. "Love doesn't mean being comfortable; it doesn't mean being
+petted and coddled like a pussy cat, or being looked after like a child.
+It means what it meant to Romeo when he killed himself for love of
+Juliet. It means what it meant to Orpheus when he followed Eurydice to
+the underworld. It means what it will mean to me when I have found the
+one woman--that I'll work for her, live for her, die for her, and count
+the future blank if she does not love me in return."
+
+"How wonderful!" she whispered after a moment "How wonderful--to be
+loved--like that----"
+
+His heart leaped. Some day he would make it wonderful! But not now. It
+was too soon to say the things he had to say.
+
+"The most wonderful thing right now," he said, "is that you are going to
+be--my friend."
+
+She responded radiantly. "It will be lovely to have a--big brother."
+
+"It will be lovelier to have--a little sister."
+
+He held out his hand to her, and she took it, laughing lightly. And just
+then the smiling groom came to say that the gentleman's car was at the
+door.
+
+The rain had stopped, but storm signals still showed in the south where
+the heavy clouds hung over the horizon. Overhead the sun shone, making
+kaleidoscope effects of the spring flowers in the checkered beds.
+Against the gray wall of the terraced garden the peach trees had been
+trained in foreign fashion and were full of rosy bloom.
+
+Bettina, coming out of the darkened stable, opened her eyes wide.
+
+"What a different world it seems," she said, "from the one we left in
+the storm."
+
+Justin helped her into the car. "We'll reach home before the next storm
+breaks," he remarked, as he took his seat beside her, "but there's
+trouble ahead."
+
+To him the words held no sinister meaning, nor to Bettina. In their
+hearts was no fear of the future, nor of the storms which might some day
+wreck their happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WHITE MAIDEN
+
+
+Bettina, lonely in her tower, had often looked across enviously to the
+brilliantly lighted yacht club on the nights of the weekly dances.
+
+And now she was going to a yacht club dance with Justin in attendance,
+and with Sophie for chaperon; with Sara and Doris and Sara's brother
+Duke to be added to the party when they reached the club-house pier.
+
+The question of Bettina's gown had been a puzzling one. Sophie had
+brought out everything of her own, and Diana, white-faced after a
+sleepless night, had tried to put her mind on the matter.
+
+"These are all too elaborate," she said; "she is such a child. Perhaps
+it will be best for her to get some new things now, and if you will help
+her choose them, it will be a great favor to me, Sophie."
+
+Sophie came over and kissed her. "Poor dear," she murmured.
+
+Diana leaned back against her friend. "Don't," she said in a stifled
+voice. "I can't bear it."
+
+They clung together for a moment, then Diana went on steadily, "I am
+going to town for a few days, Sophie--I _must_ get away for a bit, and
+if you don't mind, you can take Bettina in while I am gone and get her
+things. She insists that they shall not be gifts from me. She says that
+she's already under great obligations--and that her own little bank
+account is sufficient for her needs. Then, too, she can use all of her
+new things in her trousseau, and it does seem rather sensible, doesn't
+it?"
+
+Diana had said nothing to Sophie of the meeting with Anthony in the
+empty house. It was an experience too sacred for discussion. But Sophie
+had guessed much. Anthony's continued absence, Diana's restlessness, her
+haggard eyes, her insistent tenderness and care of Bettina, showed the
+sympathetic and anxious friend that something unusual had occurred, and
+that Diana was fighting a tremendous battle alone.
+
+"Just let things run on here," Diana said, "as they always do. You can
+take my place as Bettina's chaperon, and Delia will take care of the
+house. I shan't be missed, and I can--get a perspective on the
+situation."
+
+Sophie protested. "It's too great a strain on you--you'd better send
+Bettina away--she and I could have a little trip somewhere."
+
+"No, it is I who must go," Diana insisted. "Bettina must get acquainted
+with Anthony's friends. If he is going to marry her, he must be proud of
+her. You know that, Sophie," sharply, "it won't do for him to take a
+girl as the mistress of his home whom nobody ever heard of, and who
+could be criticized."
+
+Sophie rubbed her fingers lightly across Diana's forehead. "You think
+only of Anthony--do you never think of yourself?"
+
+Diana stood up. "It's because I think of how foolish I have been," she
+said, "that I can get no rest. I should never have come back to America,
+Sophie."
+
+"But, dearest-dear, how could you know?"
+
+"I couldn't know. But, oh, I wish that I had never come."
+
+Thus it happened that Sophie and Bettina had gone into town, and the
+primrose gown and the little serge suit and the new hats and the five
+pairs of shoes, together with a wonderful creation for the yacht club
+dance, had been sent out, and tried on, and pronounced perfect.
+
+Sophie's taste had supplemented Bettina's meager funds. From her own
+store of exquisite laces and brocades, of buckles and bows, she had
+added finishing touches to frocks which might otherwise have been
+commonplace.
+
+When, therefore, on the day after her adventure with Justin Bettina took
+off her wrap in the cloak room of the yacht club, Sara Duffield drew a
+sharp breath of amazement.
+
+"Will you look at that gown, Doris?" she said to her placid friend.
+"Would any one but an artist have dared to put on that side sash of
+rose-colored tulle with the silver tassel, and the wide collar of silver
+lace?"
+
+Justin Ford, knowing nothing of dressmakers, was none the less aware of
+the inspired creation.
+
+"And I said yesterday that you could not wear pink! But this isn't pink,
+is it? It's a rosy cloud on a May morning."
+
+"Do you really like it?" demanded Bettina.
+
+"I love--it."
+
+Bettina laughed light-heartedly. It was great fun to have such a
+friendly understanding with this very charming young man. She wondered
+how she had quite--dared. Things seemed so different under this blaze of
+light. Had she really promised to be a "little sister" to this most
+distinguished gentleman?
+
+They had come over in Bobbie's motor boat, and just before they reached
+the club-house pier, Justin had said, "The first dance is mine, you
+know. I'd like the second and the third, but I suppose that is
+forbidden. But you must give me all you can. I feel that I have special
+brotherly privileges."
+
+She danced exquisitely, her little satin-shod feet slipping silently
+through all the difficult twists and turns of the syncopated modern
+dances. Justin, guiding her expertly, knew that many glances were being
+leveled at them, knew that questions were being asked, that Bettina was
+being weighed in the social balance by the men and women who could make
+her success secure.
+
+When he gave her over, presently, to another partner he became aware of
+undercurrents. The girl with whom he danced shrugged her shoulders when
+he spoke with enthusiasm of Bettina's beauty.
+
+"Sara was telling me," she said, "that she used to live in the old Lane
+mansion, and that Diana Gregory has taken her up."
+
+"Sara?"
+
+Justin looked across the room to where Sara was dancing with Bobbie.
+And he made up his mind that before the evening was ended he should have
+something to say to the haughty little lady in blue.
+
+His opportunity came, presently, when he claimed Sara for a Spanish
+variation of the ever-popular Boston, in which his step particularly
+suited hers.
+
+"Look here," he remarked, as they swayed to the music, "it's up to us,
+Sara, to see that Bettina makes a hit."
+
+Sara, tilting her chin, demanded, "Why?"
+
+"Because she is Diana Gregory's friend, and Diana's anxious to have
+people like her."
+
+"Why?"
+
+He gazed down at the irritating profile.
+
+"You know why," he said with great distinctness. "Diana Gregory has a
+big heart, and this child has had a hard time. Diana wants to make her
+happy----"
+
+"But _why_ is Diana so interested, Justin? There are plenty of lonely
+and unhappy girls. So why should Diana especially pick out Bettina?
+She's years younger than Diana, and they really haven't much in common."
+
+"She's very sweet----" Justin was quite unaware of the intense fervor of
+his tones.
+
+Sara's eyes narrowed to little flashing points, as she asked, "Are you
+in love with her?"
+
+Their eyes met. "Oh, Sara, Sara," he teased, "do you expect me to wear
+my heart upon my sleeve?"
+
+"I expect you to keep it from wandering toward the daughter of an
+Italian singer," she said, sharply. "I always fancied that you had
+rather decided ideas about family, Justin."
+
+"If you mean that I'm proud of my Knickerbocker ancestry, I am," he told
+her; "just as you are proud of your Pilgrim forefathers. But Bettina
+Dolce's blood is bluer than any that ran in the veins of our
+middle-class English and Dutch grandsires. Her father was a Venetian,
+and Bettina has the beauty of those lovely ladies of old Italy."
+
+Sara's beauty was of an essentially modern type. "I don't see," she
+said, somewhat resentfully, "why I should be expected to fight the
+social battles of a girl who is really nothing to me."
+
+"Surely not," easily, "but I rather fancy that any one who snubs Bettina
+will have to reckon with Diana--and with me----"
+
+Sara's lashes hid her sharp little eyes. She was thinking rapidly. She
+did not care to offend Diana--but more, oh, much more than that, she
+did not care to offend Justin.
+
+She capitulated pensively. "Why, Justin, I don't know why you are
+calling me to account in this way. I'm sure I'm perfectly willing to
+help things along."
+
+"Good," was his delighted comment, and after that he danced with a heart
+as light as his heels.
+
+When the music stopped, Duke Duffield made his way toward them. "Oh,
+look here," he said to his sister; "why didn't you present me sooner to
+Miss Dolce? Gee, Sara, she's some dream--and her dance card was filled
+before I could get to it."
+
+Justin smiled at this slangy confirmation of his own opinion. He drifted
+presently through the room, looking for Bettina, and just as the music
+began again its rhythmical beat he saw her.
+
+Far at the other end of the room she was dancing with Anthony Blake!
+
+Bettina had never been so happy. Anthony's coming had pleased her. He
+had half promised that he might come, but there had been, as always, the
+possibility in the background that he would be kept away by some
+inconsiderate patient. But now he was here, and she was to have her next
+dance with Justin. Could anything be lovelier than to spend her evening
+thus between lover and friend, having Anthony's strength and kindliness
+to make her feel secure, and Justin's glowing youth to match her own.
+
+She decided that when she and Anthony were alone she would tell him
+about the race in the storm, and about her friendly compact with Justin.
+She was never going to keep anything from Anthony. Why, he was the best
+man in the whole wide world--the very best.
+
+She looked up at him with her eyes like stars and he, meeting that
+radiant glance, asked, "Are you happy, child?"
+
+She blushed and nodded. "Very, very happy!"
+
+And after that she danced in dreamy silence until Justin came for her.
+
+At supper, Anthony claimed Bettina as a matter of course, leaving Mrs.
+Martens to Justin. The four of them, with Bobbie and Doris and Sara and
+her brother ate at a little table on the club-house porch. In the pale
+light of the lanterns Bettina's beauty was more than ever ethereal.
+
+Justin, watching her with puzzled eyes, took note of her dependence upon
+Anthony, of her confiding manner, of her undoubted interest in him. Now
+and then she flashed a glance at Justin, and he was forced to content
+himself with such occasional crumbs from the queen's table.
+
+But he grew restless and uneasy. Anthony easily dominated the little
+group. It was in such moments that he was at his best. His brilliant
+wit, his forceful personality, had never been displayed to better
+advantage.
+
+Justin, beside him, felt young and crude. He told himself that he had
+nothing to fear. Everybody knew that Anthony cared only for Diana. Yet,
+even as he comforted himself, he saw Bettina's look of triumphant pride
+as Anthony brought a clever story to its climax, and his heart raged in
+impotent jealousy.
+
+They all went back together in Bobbie's motor boat, and in the darkness
+Justin managed to say to Bettina, "So you've deserted me."
+
+"Oh, no," she protested, "but you see I couldn't desert--Anthony."
+
+"Has he, then, the first claim?" his voice shook as his dull resentment
+flamed.
+
+She hesitated. "He--has been so kind--and he's a sort of guardian--you
+know----"
+
+She dared not tell him more than that, for had she not promised Diana
+that she would not? Her nature was so crystal clear that she would have
+been glad to set things straight, to tell him that she was going to
+marry Anthony, but that she would always be his friend. It was such a
+perfect arrangement; he would surely understand.
+
+She sighed a little, wishing that she had nothing to hide. And with her
+sigh his moodiness vanished.
+
+"If it's because he's your guardian, all right--but I'm not going to
+give you up always so easily."
+
+"Why must you give me up at all?" she challenged.
+
+"Why?" he echoed. "There is no 'why.' I shall never give you up."
+
+At Diana's door she said "Good-bye." "It has been the loveliest evening
+of my life," she told him. "I shall never forget."
+
+Anthony came in, ostensibly to telephone, but really to have a moment
+alone with Bettina. Sophie, with sympathetic insight, made the excuse of
+a letter, which Anthony could mail, and withdrew to write it.
+
+In the dimly-lighted music room, Anthony said, "You must forgive me,
+dear child, for seeming to neglect you, but I've been such a busy man."
+
+"I know." She looked up at him. "But it seems nice to have you now."
+
+"And it seems nice to have you."
+
+He smiled at her, but he did not touch her. Somehow since that night in
+the empty house with Diana he had felt that there were things which must
+come slowly. If he was to play the lover to little Betty, it must be
+when he could shut out from his heart the image of that pale tall woman
+in the lilac-scented room.
+
+But Bettina missed nothing from his manner. She felt for him a grateful
+affection, an unbounded respect, but her wish for impulsive
+demonstration was gone. She was content to be near him, to know that he
+cared for her--beyond that she had no conscious desires.
+
+Still smiling at her, he took from his pocket a little box. "I haven't
+been too busy to remember that I wanted to give you this," he said, and
+handed it to her.
+
+Set in a slender ring were three great diamonds, and for a guard there
+was a little circlet of sapphires.
+
+"Perhaps you won't care to wear it now," he said, as she gave a gasp of
+delight, "but I wanted you to have it. I wanted it to be the sign and
+seal of the bond which is between us."
+
+She came to him, then all gratitude and clinging sweetness, and put up
+her face to be kissed.
+
+He touched his lips to her forehead. And he said he was glad that he had
+made her happy. But he did not tell her that he had forced himself to
+plight thus, tangibly, his troth to her that there might be no escape
+from the path of honor which he must follow.
+
+Little Bettina, alone that night in her room, took off the rosy dress
+and laid it on her bed. Then, enveloped in her long white motor coat,
+she went out on her porch, and curled up in one of the big chairs.
+Across the harbor the lights were out at the yacht club. Between the
+Neck and the main shore little starlike points showed where the lanterns
+were swung on the sleeping boats. It was long after midnight, and the
+cold morning mists were already coming in.
+
+But she could not sleep. She had so many wonderful things to think of. A
+few weeks ago she had been a little lonely child with no one who cared
+whether she lived or died--now she was rich in love and friendship.
+
+She turned the ring on her finger. How strange it seemed to think that
+in a few short months she would be--married. That she would belong to
+Anthony until death should part them.
+
+Her breath came quickly. She stood up, slim and white in her long coat.
+Then suddenly she slipped to her knees.
+
+"Oh, please, please," she prayed, with her face upturned to the waning
+stars, "make me worthy of his love. Make me worthy to be his wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+YOUTH AND BEAUTY
+
+
+It was two days after the dance at the yacht club that Diana came home.
+She arrived late and unexpectedly. Bettina had gone to bed, and the only
+light which burned to welcome her was Sophie's, on the third floor.
+
+Diana paid her cabman, and set her key in the lock, to be welcomed by
+Peter Pan's purring note as she opened the door.
+
+She stooped and picked up the big cat. "Dear Peter," she whispered.
+
+Peter, held against her heart, sang his little song of content, and,
+standing for a moment in the darkness, Diana fought for self-control
+before she went up to Sophie's room.
+
+Mrs. Martens, wrapped in her gray kimono, was writing letters. She
+looked up with a glad cry as Diana entered.
+
+"Why, Diana," she said, "you darling!"
+
+"I didn't telegraph," Diana said, as she kissed her friend, "for there
+wasn't any use. I had my key, and I knew I could get a cab----"
+
+"You're tired, dearest-dear." Sophie's worried eyes noted the weariness
+of gesture and tone, and the shadows under Diana's eyes as she untied
+her veil and took off her hat.
+
+"Yes, I'm tired, dead tired." Diana dropped into a chair, and laid her
+head against the cushioned back.
+
+Sophie bent over her. "You're not comfortable," she said; "come on down
+to your room and take a hot bath, and I'll heat a cup of milk, and then
+you can rest all warm and comfy, and I'll rub your head."
+
+"Sophie," said Diana, suddenly, "I wonder if I ever rubbed anybody's
+head?"
+
+"Of course," said Sophie; "what makes you say that?"
+
+"Because I've been thinking a lot since I went to town, and it seems to
+me that all my life I've just taken and have not given. I took Anthony's
+love--I've taken your service----" She held out her hand. "Oh, I've been
+a selfish pig, Sophie, darling."
+
+Sophie took the extended hand and patted it. "What a silly thing to
+say," soothingly; "you've always been everything--to me, Diana. You've
+done so much for me that I can never repay."
+
+"Oh, yes, in giving big things--but it's the little things that
+count--like heating cups of milk and rubbing people's heads."
+
+She said it whimsically, but there were tears in her eyes.
+
+"You come right down and go to bed," Sophie advised. "And we can talk
+all about it afterward."
+
+Diana, propped up among her pillows, watched her friend as she flitted
+like a gray moth about the room, intent on various comforting offices,
+and when at last Sophie brought to her a steaming cup Diana said, "Do
+you know, Sophie, I've always thought myself a rather superior person."
+
+"Well, you are," Sophie agreed.
+
+"I'm not. Oh, I've made up my mind about things at last, and I know that
+it hasn't been Bettina's happiness, nor Anthony's happiness that I have
+been thinking about, but my own.
+
+"If I had not stayed on after I found out the state of things here," she
+continued, "Anthony would have learned to care for Betty--every man
+loves youth and beauty----"
+
+Sophie shook her head. "It takes us women all of our lives to learn
+that it is not for the red of our lips or the blue of our eyes that we
+are loved----"
+
+"Oh, but you know it is the beautiful women who draw men----"
+
+"But it is not the beautiful women who hold them. I'll set any demure
+little soul with a loving heart against all the faultlessly-regular
+-splendidly-null persons in the world when it comes to keeping the
+affections of a husband--and what has Bettina that she can give Anthony
+to take the place of the things which he has loved in you?"
+
+"She has youth."
+
+"How you harp on that string! You have a mind and soul which meets
+Anthony's. And your beauty equals hers. You must not forget that,
+Diana."
+
+"I don't forget it. I know what I mean to Anthony. But Bettina will mean
+other things to him. And who shall say which of us would make the better
+wife?
+
+"Oh, I've thought these things all out, and I know that I could never be
+happy, Sophie, if my happiness were founded on the hurt heart of that
+child. And so--I am going away--and let things go back to where they
+would have been if I had never come----"
+
+"Do you think they can--ever go back, Diana?"
+
+Diana, remembering Anthony's face in the moonlight, hesitated, then she
+said, bravely, "I shall not ask myself that question, Sophie. I shall
+simply do the thing which will seem right to me, and I am sure it is
+right for me to go away."
+
+"And Bettina?"
+
+"She must stay here with you until she is married. You won't mind, will
+you? There will be plenty of things to do. You can help with her wedding
+outfit. And after they are--married, you and I will go back--to Berlin.
+No, we won't, Sophie. We'll go to the desert, and down the Nile, and
+we'll go to Japan, and see Fujiyama; and we'll visit the temples in
+China, and we'll find out from some of those old Buddhists how they
+acquire--peace----"
+
+"We will go to the ends of the earth if you wish--but there's only one
+place that I shall ask you to take me, Diana."
+
+"Where, dear heart?"
+
+"To that quiet spot over there in Germany, where the big cross stands up
+against the sky----"
+
+"Sophie--of course you shall go there, dear."
+
+Mrs. Martens knelt by the bed. "I've been thinking of my lover, too,
+while you've been away. We have each lost the man who made the world a
+wonderful place--henceforth you and I must live among the shadows--but
+because we have each other, it shall not be quite so hard."
+
+It was a long time before they came back to the question of Diana's
+departure.
+
+"But what excuse can you give for going now, Diana?"
+
+"My health," said Diana, promptly. "Everybody knows that I first went to
+Germany for the baths, and I can say what is true,--that the dampness
+here disagrees with me, with my throat."
+
+"But where will you go?"
+
+"To the mountains; oh, Sophie, I shall lift up my eyes to the hills, and
+hope for strength----"
+
+Out of the ensuing silence came the sound of a little tap at the door.
+
+"Is Diana there?" asked Bettina on the other side. "I thought I heard
+her voice."
+
+As Bettina came in, the radiance of youth shone from within and round
+about her. She kissed Diana. "Oh, so many things have happened,"
+rapturously, "since you went away. Do you want me to tell you about
+them?"
+
+"You blessed baby," said Diana, and it seemed to Sophie that in her
+voice was a note of sincere affection.
+
+Bettina curled herself up on the foot of Diana's bed. "Well, in the
+first place," she said, "Anthony gave me a ring--a lovely ring, and a
+little guard to wear with it."
+
+Diana did not flinch. "And why aren't you wearing your lovely ring," she
+asked, "for all the world to see?"
+
+"Oh, but you said I mustn't," Bettina told her, "and so I keep it here."
+
+She tugged at a slender chain which hung around her neck, and brought
+forth from beneath the embroidered thinness of her gown the two rings,
+which gave out flashing lights as she bent toward Diana.
+
+Diana did not touch them. "They're lovely," she said, steadily; "aren't
+they, Sophie?"
+
+"I'm glad he didn't give me pearls," Bettina went on, as Mrs. Martens
+exclaimed at their beauty, "because pearls mean tears."
+
+"I've always worn pearls," said Diana.
+
+"Oh, but not as love gifts," said Bettina, quickly. "It's only when your
+lover gives you a pearl that you weep--my mother's gift from my father
+was a great pearl--and when--he went away--she dropped it--into the
+sea.
+
+"And I didn't blame her." Bettina was swinging her own rings back and
+forth, and they gave out a silvery tinkle like a chime of fairy bells.
+"I didn't blame her, although the pearl was worth a great deal of money
+and we were poor. I shouldn't want a ring after a man had ceased to love
+me, would you?"
+
+"Of course not," said Diana, "and now--tell me, what were the other nice
+things which happened while I was away?"
+
+"Oh," Bettina laughed, "I went fishing with Captain Stubbs and Miss
+Matthews, and Justin----"
+
+"Justin?"
+
+"Yes. Justin Ford. He invited himself. I told Mrs. Martens when I came
+home that I tried not to have him go, but he would, and it stormed----
+Oh, well, we had a lovely time."
+
+Somehow she had found it hard to tell Mrs. Martens, as she was finding
+it hard to tell Diana, just what had made the day so lovely. And as for
+her compact of friendship, she would tell Anthony but no other.
+
+"Then there was the yacht club dance," she continued, "and oh, Diana,
+you should have seen my gown--it was a dream."
+
+Sophie confirmed her verdict. "She was lovely in it, Diana," she said,
+"and everybody is talking of the success she made."
+
+"And Anthony came," said Bettina, "and when we reached home he gave me
+the ring, and yesterday I had a long ride with him; oh, yes, and the day
+before, Justin and Sara and Doris and I had lunch on Bobbie's boat."
+
+"I thought Bobbie's boat was in the yard for repairs?"
+
+"It is," said Bettina, "and that's the fun of it. He's living on board,
+and yesterday he and Justin looked up and saw me on the porch, and they
+insisted on having a lunch party, and Bobbie made his man get up a
+perfectly wonderful little lunch, and he telephoned for the other girls,
+and Duke, and we climbed the ladder and ate up there in the air, and
+Sophie chaperoned us from your front porch."
+
+"They wanted me to climb the ladder too," said Sophie, "but I told them
+I would be a little angel up aloft, and play propriety at a safe
+distance. It's a good thing the yacht yard happens to be at the foot of
+your rocks, Diana, or I'm afraid Bettina would have gone unchaperoned.
+It's a dizzy height up that ladder."
+
+"And Bobbie sent things up to her in a basket," Bettina related; "we let
+down a piece of hammock rope, and we tied the basket to it."
+
+Diana, listening to the light chatter, felt set apart by the tragedy of
+her own unhappiness. Once she would have enjoyed an escapade like the
+lunch party; now she was glad that she could go away--and leave it all
+behind her and perhaps--forget.
+
+"Bobbie is such a funny fellow"--Bettina was still swinging the tinkling
+rings--"and he's awfully in love with Doris. And Doris worships him, and
+it makes Sara furious."
+
+"But, my dear, Sara isn't the least bit in love with Bobbie."
+
+"I know, but she thinks Doris is so silly to let Bobbie see--but that's
+just what Bobbie adores in her. He likes to be worshiped, and he's
+positively puffed up with pride like a pouter pigeon because he's going
+to marry Doris."
+
+"Then it's settled?" Diana asked.
+
+"Yes. It seems he proposed on the night of the yacht club dance, and
+yesterday at lunch Bobbie announced it, and he blushed and Doris
+blushed--but really it was awfully sweet, Diana--they are so happy."
+
+"At first I thought Bobbie liked Sara," Bettina stated, later.
+
+"Oh, no." Diana laughed. "It's Justin, you know, with Sara."
+
+The flashing rings tinkled, tinkled. Bettina's eyes were on them.
+
+"Oh, are they--engaged?"
+
+"Oh, no; it's just a friendship, I fancy."
+
+So? Other girls were his friends! Bettina's head went up, and she
+slipped the rings back in their hiding place.
+
+"They've always known each other," Diana explained. "You see Sara was a
+sharp-tongued little girl, and Justin could get along with her better
+than the other boys because of his easy-going ways. And he gets along
+with her now, but usually it is a sort of armed truce."
+
+Bettina felt better, but needing further assurance, she ventured, "I
+suppose he has a sort of brotherly feeling for her."
+
+It was Sophie who answered that question.
+
+"No, he hasn't. Justin adores the memory of his own little sister. She
+was a dear child and lame. And she was about as like Sara, I imagine,
+as a white dove is like a peacock. Justin has often told me that when he
+marries he wants to find a woman to whom he can tell his dreams as he
+told them to his little sister--it is perhaps because he has failed to
+find such a woman that he is unmarried."
+
+It seemed to Bettina, suddenly, that all the stars sang! "Oh, it's such
+a lovely world"--she was all aglow--"and you've made it lovely for me,
+Diana, by having me here, and doing wonderful things for me."
+
+"I want you to stay for a long time, dear, until you are married. But
+you'll forgive me if I go away and leave you alone with Sophie for a
+while?"
+
+"Oh, must you go away again?"
+
+"Yes. I'm not well. This air doesn't agree with--my throat," Diana
+stammered, not caring to meet the clear eyes.
+
+"Oh, but I'm afraid that I'm terribly in the way," Bettina said
+distressfully. "You'll want Mrs. Martens to go with you. You mustn't
+have her stay on my account. I can go back to my rooms with Miss
+Matthews. Really I can--I shouldn't mind."
+
+"My dear, I should mind very much." Diana reached out her hand to her.
+"Don't make me unhappy by taking it that way--I want you here."
+
+"But you've done enough for me, putting yourself out in this way----"
+
+"I have done only the things that I wanted to do. And now don't make me
+unhappy by suggesting that you won't keep poor Sophie company. What
+would she do without you?"
+
+Bettina looked from one to the other. "Are you very sure you shouldn't
+go away together, if it weren't for me?"
+
+"Very sure--I should bore her terribly."
+
+They all laughed, and Bettina said, "Of course I know you're doing it
+all for my sake----"
+
+"And for Anthony," said Diana, softly; "for the sake of my old friend
+Anthony."
+
+"How wonderful your friendship is," said Bettina, softly. "It makes me
+believe in all friendship, Diana."
+
+A little later she slid down from the bed. "You're tired and I'm keeping
+you up. I'll run along."
+
+But Diana held her for a moment.
+
+"Anthony will soon want to be going into the big house--when will you be
+ready, Bettina?"
+
+"Oh, not yet," said Bettina, breathlessly, "not yet. I'd rather wait.
+Don't you think it will be best to wait?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh," her cheeks flamed, "I don't know why--only I don't want to get
+married--for a long time, Diana."
+
+Diana looked at her with puzzled eyes. There was some change in the
+child which she could not fathom. What had happened to little Bettina in
+the short time since she had been away? She would ask Sophie--she would
+ask--Anthony.
+
+In the adjoining room the telephone rang. Sophie, going to answer it,
+came back with the announcement, "It's Anthony. He wanted to know if you
+had returned. He needs you at the hospital. That little girl with the
+appendicitis is very much worse. But I told him that you had just
+reached home, and that you were so tired, and it was so late----"
+
+"Sophie, how could you? Tell him I'll come. Ask him to send his car for
+me. Bettina, dear, hand me my slippers, and help me with my hair."
+
+Bettina was shivering and white. "Is it the girl Anthony operated on?"
+she asked.
+
+"Yes. Sophie, I'll wear the white serge. It's the easiest to get into,
+and my long coat----"
+
+Bettina's shaking voice went on: "Wouldn't it be--dreadful--if anything
+happened? Wouldn't it be dreadful--if she should die?"
+
+Sophie laid her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Help Diana now, dear," she
+advised; "we'll talk about it afterward."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HER LETTER TO ANTHONY
+
+
+Diana never forgot that ride in the dark to Harbor Light. It was a clear
+night, with the sea like a sheet of silver under the moon. The big
+building, which loomed up, at last, before her, seemed, with its
+yellow-lighted windows, like some monster of giant size, gazing
+wide-eyed upon the waters.
+
+The gardens, through which she passed, were heavy with the scent of
+hyacinths; the slight wash of the waves on the beach only emphasized the
+stillness.
+
+As she drove up to the doorway, two night nurses flitted through the
+corridor, ghost-like in their white uniforms.
+
+Then came Anthony. His face looked worn and worried.
+
+"We couldn't save her, Diana," he said, tensely.
+
+"Oh, the poor little thing!"
+
+"We made a fight for it. I sent for you because if she roused I wanted
+you to be there."
+
+"If you had telephoned sooner."
+
+"I could not. The change was very sudden." He flung himself into a
+chair. "Oh, what is all my skill worth, Diana, when I couldn't save that
+child?"
+
+She had seen him in such moods before, when he had felt powerless
+against all the opposing forces of disease and death.
+
+But she did not care that others should see him. It was enough that she
+should know that this great doctor Anthony had his weaknesses. The rest
+of the world should not know it.
+
+"Come out into the garden," she coaxed; "the air will do you good."
+
+As they walked up and down the garden paths he gave her more definite
+details. "She did not know that she was going. There was no reason to
+trouble her gentle soul with fears. And so, at last, when she drifted
+off into the silence, she was smiling."
+
+"And I am sure that she was still smiling when on the other side she
+found Love waiting."
+
+"How wonderfully you put it, Di."
+
+"It is not because I put it that way; it is because it is wonderful. Do
+you know, Anthony, that has always been my idea of heaven--as a place
+where Infinite Love waits. If that little child had lived she would
+have faced a future of loneliness--now she will never be lonely--never
+sick--never unhappy."
+
+"But she wanted to live."
+
+"But she didn't know life, Anthony--as some of us know it, as a place of
+unfulfilled dreams----"
+
+They had reached the beach, and the track of the moon spread out before
+them, ending only at the horizon.
+
+"She followed the path o' the moon," said Diana, softly, "a little white
+soul in a silver boat. Death is a great adventure, Anthony."
+
+"Sometimes I feel as if I were merely a longshoreman, who helps to load
+the boats as they start on that great adventure----"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, we doctors see so much of pain which we cannot ease, so much misery
+which we cannot prevent. We see the innocent suffering for the
+guilty--the weak bearing the burdens which belong to the strong--and
+even if we try our hardest we can't change these things--and the boats
+still go sailing out to the Unknown----"
+
+"Anthony, I wish I might be sure of one thing----"
+
+"What, dear girl----?"
+
+"That you would never change your present point of view. So many
+doctors lose faith in human nature because they see only the diseased
+side, and their vision becomes distorted. And, losing their faith in
+man, they lose faith in God. The thing which has always made you, in my
+eyes, a great man as well as a great surgeon has been the fact that you
+have seemed to understand that you were working with Infinite Love
+toward the completion of a perfect plan; you have seemed to understand
+that life is good as long as it is lived wisely and well; that death is
+good when it ends suffering and sorrow. These things you have seen and
+known--I want you always to see and know them."
+
+"If any one could make me see and know them it is you, Diana."
+
+They were silent after that, and presently she said that she must go.
+
+Anthony took her home himself in his little car, and when at last they
+reached her door he said, gratefully: "What should I do without your
+friendship? At least I have that, Diana."
+
+She hesitated. "It must be a long distance friendship, Anthony."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I am going away."
+
+"Oh, why should you? We are self-controlled man and woman, not impulsive
+boy and girl. We have set our feet on a hard path. Why shouldn't we
+cheer each other along the way?"
+
+"I'm afraid it wouldn't be fair--to Bettina."
+
+"Why not? My friendship for you need deprive her of nothing."
+
+"I must think it over."
+
+"Don't think. Don't analyze at all. Just stay." A grave smile lighted
+his face. "I'm not making this as a selfish proposition, Diana. I shan't
+expect to absorb you, to take you away from other friendships. But I
+want you to be near me at such times as this; when my world was without
+a ray of light, you illumined it with your friendly taper."
+
+Diana climbed the steps in an uplifted mood. This, then, was the
+solution of the difficulty. She had been making high tragedy of the
+situation when it might be solved sensibly. She remembered a quotation
+which she had copied in her school note-book: "My friend is one with
+whom I can associate my choicest thought." Her friendship with Anthony
+could go on as before. She could be an inspirational force in his life.
+Had she the right to refuse?
+
+She found Bettina and Sophie sitting up for her.
+
+"Oh, you're back so soon," Bettina said. "Is she better? Is that little
+girl better?"
+
+Diana returned to realities with a shock. How selfish she had been! She
+had almost forgotten that poor little soul at the hospital.
+
+"No, she isn't better." She shrank from voicing the truth. "They
+couldn't save her, and before I reached there she was--gone."
+
+"_Dead!_" Bettina shuddered. "Oh, I think such things are dreadful; I
+don't see how Anthony stands it."
+
+"It has made him very miserable," Diana told her; "he hates to lose a
+case."
+
+"Then why does he do it?" Bettina demanded. "Why doesn't he give up his
+surgery? He has enough to do with his freaks at the sanatorium, and his
+sick people who need medicine."
+
+"Would you have a man give up a thing which he can do better than other
+men?"
+
+Sophie, looking on, wondered if there had ever been a greater contrast
+than these two women who faced each other in the rose-colored room.
+Diana, tall and pale, with wisps of hair flying a bit untidily from
+beneath her soft hat, yet still beautiful and with the light of high
+resolve shining in her steady eyes; Bettina, a little slender slip of a
+child, her fair shining braids falling below her knees, her eyes
+demanding why men and women should be dedicated to hardness.
+
+"I have been telling Bettina," Mrs. Martens interposed, gently, "that
+she will understand some day what such a man means to the world."
+
+For once in her life Diana, tired Diana, lost patience. "She ought to
+know what such a man means," she said.
+
+Bettina put her hands before her face and stood very still.
+
+"Oh, dear child," said Diana, remorsefully, "I shouldn't have said such
+a thing to you. I didn't mean it."
+
+[Illustration: "I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID SUCH A THING"]
+
+Bettina's hands dropped straight at her sides. Her blue eyes were misty.
+"But it's true," she said. "I'm afraid--I'm afraid I'm not the wife for
+Anthony."
+
+Never had there been a truer saying. Yet the two older women stood
+abashed before the hurt look on the little white face.
+
+"He has always seemed to me to be the noblest man," Bettina went on. "I
+don't think I have ever felt that he was anything but great. You
+people, who have always had everything, can't understand what he seemed
+to me when he used to come when mother was ill. You can't understand
+what it meant when he came to me when I was almost dead with loneliness,
+and told me that he wanted to marry me--you can't understand how every
+night--I pray--on my knees, that I'll be good enough for him--you can't
+understand how grateful I am--and how I try to appreciate his work; but
+I'm made that way--to hate pain. I hate to know about it--to see it----"
+Again she shuddered.
+
+Diana drew her close. "Oh, you poor little thing," she said, "you poor
+little thing."
+
+When the dawn, not many hours later, peeped into the three rooms, it
+showed, in one, Sophie asleep beneath the picture of her lost lover. In
+another Bettina, asleep, with tears still on her lashes, and with the
+flashing rings rising and falling above her heart. In the third room it
+showed Diana, awake, after hours of weariness--writing a letter to
+Anthony.
+
+When Anthony had read that letter, he left the sanatorium and took a
+path which led him to the hills and into the hemlock forest. The walk up
+the hills was long, and the sun was hot, so that when he reached the
+depths of the wood he threw himself down with a grateful sense of the
+stillness which could not be disturbed by telephone or tap at the door.
+For a little while he lay with his eyes shut, steeping himself in that
+blessed silence.
+
+When at last he sat up, he took from his pocket Diana's letter, and read
+it again, passing his hand now and then nervously through his hair,
+until it stood up like the ruffled plumage of an eagle.
+
+
+  "DEAR ANTHONY:--
+
+  "It will be easier for me to talk with you in this way than face to
+  face. When you are with me, my point of view seems to get mixed up
+  with your point of view, and before I know it, I find myself making
+  promises which I cannot keep, as to-night, when I almost said I would
+  stay--and be your friend.
+
+  "I have always been your friend, Anthony. Haven't I? Even when I was a
+  little girl, and you were a big boy, you seemed to find something in
+  me which made it worth while for you to leave the other big boys and
+  stay with me and talk about my books. Will I ever forget how you read
+  some of them aloud to me? I never open now my thumbed little copy of
+  'Cranford' without hearing your laughing voice stumbling over the
+  mincing phrases, and as for 'Little Women,' I believe that I worshiped
+  in you the personification of 'Laurie.'
+
+  "But those were not the best times, Anthony. The best were when it was
+  too dark to read, and I would curl up on the big bench by the side of
+  the fire, and you would lie at full length on the hearth-rug, and the
+  wind would blow and the waves would boom, and you would weave tales
+  for me out of your wonderful wealth of boyish dreams.
+
+  "Blessed memories! But even then I believe I resented your
+  masterfulness a bit, Anthony. There was that time when you told me
+  that I must get my lessons before you would finish the story which was
+  so near the end. And I cried and coaxed, but you stood firm--and I
+  respected you for it, and hated you and loved you in one breath.
+
+  "Oh, my big boy Anthony! Shall I ever forget you, with your brown lock
+  over your blue eyes, your unswerving honesty of purpose, your high
+  ideals. When you came home from college, and I had just put up my
+  hair, and lengthened my dresses, you started to kiss me, then stopped.
+  'I thought I could,' you said, with such a funny note of surprise in
+  your voice, 'but there's something about you that sort of--holds me
+  off, Di.'
+
+  "I think then that I began to know my power over you. And how I have
+  used it, Anthony! I have kept you single and alone all these years,
+  because something in me would not yield to your kind of wooing.
+
+  "If only you could have been a cave man and could have carried me off!
+  So many women wish that of men, especially proud women. It isn't that
+  we admire brutality, but we want to have all of our little feminine
+  doubts and fears overcome by the man's decisive action. And you made
+  the mistake of waiting patiently, asking me now and then, 'Will you?'
+  instead of saying, 'You must.'
+
+  "Yet while you could not win me, in other ways you dominated me. Do
+  you remember the holidays when I came home from boarding-school, and
+  you were interne at a hospital? You asked me to go to the theater with
+  you, and at the last moment you were called to the operating room to
+  help one of the surgeons. You telephoned that you'd send a carriage
+  for me and my chaperon, but that you couldn't go;--and I wouldn't go
+  either, but stayed at home and sulked, and looked at myself in the
+  glass, now and then, to mourn over the fact that you couldn't see me
+  in my pink organdie with the rosebuds.
+
+  "But you wouldn't even apologize for what I called your neglect. I
+  said I should never go with you. You said it wasn't neglect, and that
+  I should go. And go I did, finally, as meekly as possible, and I wore
+  the pink organdie and had a lovely time.
+
+  "It's the memory of that night when you couldn't fit your plans to
+  mine which has made me write this letter. When I came home from Harbor
+  Light I found Bettina waiting up for me, and she broke down as the
+  depressing realities of your work were forced upon her. I was very
+  toploftical, Anthony--and was prepared to read her a sermon on the
+  duties of a doctor's wife, when all at once I had a vision of myself
+  in that rosebud organdie. I hated your work then, and I felt that you
+  lacked something of devotion to me, to let it keep you from me.
+
+  "But later I felt differently. The world began to call you a great
+  man--and I began to see with clearer eyes what you were doing for the
+  world. And so I helped you at Harbor Light, and saw you there at your
+  best--with your forceful control of all those helpless people, with
+  your steadiness of hand and eye, a king who ruled by virtue of his
+  power over life and death.
+
+  "It was in those days, I think, that I began to worship you. But I
+  never called my worship love. I wanted to be Me, Myself, and somehow I
+  felt that when I was once promised to you I should have no separate
+  identity. It was the rebellion of a strong personality against a
+  stronger one. I was not wise enough to see that you who protected
+  others from the storms of life might want some little haven of your
+  own--a haven which would be--Home.
+
+  "But because you failed to be masterful in the one way which would
+  have won me, because you said, always, 'Will you?' instead of,
+  'Come--let there be no more of this between you and me, Diana,' I went
+  away, not understanding you, not understanding myself.
+
+  "And over there with Sophie, I met Van Rosen. As I look back upon it,
+  I do not wonder that he charmed me. He was different from our American
+  men, a lover of pleasure. He typified the spirit of joy to me--there
+  was never a moment when he had not some vivid plan for me. We did
+  things of which I had always dreamed.
+
+  "He gave a house party for me in his ancestral castle on the Rhine.
+  And he proposed to me in an ancient chapel with the moonlight making
+  the effigies of his old ancestors seem like living knights in golden
+  armor.
+
+  "It was all so picturesque that practical America--that you, oh, I
+  must confess it, Anthony,--seemed miles away. It seemed to me that in
+  my own country we lived dreary lives in a workaday atmosphere. It was
+  only in that castle on the Rhine that there were people who knew how
+  to play. So I became engaged, and through all those months, Van Rosen
+  and I played together.
+
+  "But I grew so tired of it, so deadly tired of it! Life seemed to have
+  no meaning. And after a time I grew a little afraid. Van Rosen was
+  different. I can't define exactly where the difference lay. But
+  between us was the barrier of centuries of opposing traditions. I
+  began to feel that as his wife I should be a Princess in name, but a
+  slave in fact. Always laughing, always seeming to dance in the
+  sunshine, he had a hardness which nothing could soften. I saw him now
+  and then with those whom he considered his inferiors. I saw his
+  treatment of his servants, his horses, his dogs. I heard him speak
+  once to an old and dependent aunt, at another time to a young
+  governess--and my cheeks burned--and I was afraid.
+
+  "It came back to me then how you had always treated those who were
+  weaker than yourself. You had always been a champion of old ladies and
+  children. Every animal, from Peter Pan to your old fat horse--that old
+  fat horse now is living in clover since you acquired your motor
+  cars--adored and followed you.
+
+  "And one day I told Van Rosen--that I couldn't marry him. You don't
+  know how humble I felt to think that I might have hurt him. But in
+  that moment his real self showed. He was angry, furiously angry, and I
+  knew all at once that it was my money, and not me that he wanted.
+
+  "And so I came back to you----
+
+  "But you had Bettina, and there was no place for me. No place for the
+  little dark-eyed girl who had listened to the big boy on stormy
+  nights, no place for the woman who had not known her own heart----
+
+  "And now you want me to be your friend. But I can't be your
+  friend--Anthony. Friendship is for the man and woman who have never
+  loved. A friendship which is the aftermath of love is the shadow after
+  the substance. Can't you see that it is so? Can't you see that there
+  would be just two things which might happen? If I stayed here and
+  tried to be your friend, either I should knit myself to you by ties
+  which should bind you to your wife, or we should drift apart, having
+  the perfect memory neither of love nor of friendship.
+
+  "Bettina is very young, but she has depths of which you have not
+  dreamed, of which I had not dreamed, until I talked with her last
+  night. I went up to her room, and we had a very sweet and tender
+  confidence. It was almost dawn before I left her. She showed me much
+  of her heart, as she will, I hope, some day show it to you----
+
+  "Hers is a little white soul, dear friend. On the surface she has her
+  girlish petulances, her youthful prejudices. But these? Why, I had a
+  thousand of them, Anthony. How I snubbed those poor students whom you
+  brought with you one afternoon to tea because their elbows were shiny
+  and their shoes rusty. I was such a little snob, Anthony. How I should
+  welcome them now--those great doctors, who have done so much for
+  humanity.
+
+  "It is life which teaches us, dear friend. It will teach Bettina. And
+  it must teach me this: To bear the hard things. Do you remember in
+  those days when we read of knights on the battle-field that we loved
+  those who died fighting? And how we hated those who ran away? Well,
+  I'm going to fight--but my fight must begin by running away.
+
+  "It isn't a battle which we can fight together. The two who must do
+  things together are you and Bettina. Any friendship of ours would shut
+  her out. That's the plain truth, and you and I are old enough to know
+  it, Anthony.
+
+  "There's much more that I could say to you. Much more. But you must
+  read between the lines. All my days I shall have in my heart the
+  memory of my dear--big boy. Some day when I am old and you are old, we
+  can be friends. I'll look forward to that day, and it shall be my
+  beacon light in the darkness.
+
+  "It's good-bye, dear, for a long time--good-bye.
+
+  "DIANA."
+
+
+How still it was in the hemlock forest! A squirrel which had ventured
+down from the branches flattened himself against the trunk of a tree and
+peered curiously at the figure which lay face downward on the fragrant
+carpet. One hand, outflung, caught at a little bush and held on as if in
+agony. The other hand grasped the sheets of gray paper, which,
+close-written, in feminine script, had brought a message of infinite
+pain and loss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE LITTLE SILVER RING
+
+
+The yacht yard in which Bobbie's boat was hauled up for repairs lay at
+the foot of the rocks to the north of Diana's house. From the north
+porch, therefore, one could look down on the activities which had to do
+with the bringing in, and putting into shape the fine craft which
+through the summer were anchored in the harbor. A marine railway floated
+the boats in and out at high tide, and at such times creaked
+complainingly.
+
+It was on the north porch that Sophie and Bettina sat on the morning
+after Diana's departure--Sophie knitting a motor scarf for Anthony,
+Bettina hemstitching white frills.
+
+Below in the yacht yard the master gave orders, and the machinery of the
+marine railway began its clanking chorus. Bettina glanced over the rail.
+"Bobbie's boat is going out," she said, "and he and Justin are on
+board."
+
+Justin saw her and called, "May I come up?"
+
+Bettina shook her head at him. "If he thinks I'm going to shriek an
+answer to the housetops, he's mistaken."
+
+Again she shook her head at him, and Justin immediately offered excuses
+to Bobbie.
+
+"You won't mind," he said, "if I go up there?"
+
+Bobbie jeered. "Talk about me! You're here to-day and there to-morrow.
+Yesterday it was Sara, and now it's Betty Dolce."
+
+"It was never Sara."
+
+"That's what I said when I fell in love with Doris, but you wouldn't
+believe me. And I can't quite see the difference."
+
+"I've never cared for Sara in that way."
+
+"Then you have jolly well flirted with her."
+
+"Don't try to be English with your 'jolly wells.'"
+
+Bobbie turned his back on Justin. "I suppose, then, you're not going to
+have lunch with me?" he said over his shoulder.
+
+"Why can't we all have lunch with you?"
+
+"Who is--all?"
+
+"Betty, and Mrs. Martens--and me----"
+
+"Doesn't Doris come into it?"
+
+"Of course, if you can get her up."
+
+"I can always get her up. You know that. But there's nobody just now in
+the world for you but Betty Dolce."
+
+Nobody but Bettina! Justin admitted it to himself triumphantly. Please
+God, there should never be any one but Bettina!
+
+Perhaps something of his thought showed in his face, for Bobbie clapped
+him on the shoulder with a hearty, "Go in and win her, old man, and
+we'll have a double wedding."
+
+"If my wedding," solemnly, "were as sure as yours, I'd burn incense to
+the gods."
+
+"Well, why don't you make it sure?"
+
+"I can't. She stands on her pedestal, and I can't reach up to her."
+
+"Man, you're afraid of her."
+
+"It isn't that. But I'm not in this race to fall out, Bobbie. I guess
+you can see that."
+
+Bobbie nodded. "Anybody who has eyes can see it," he said.
+
+The little yacht was in the water now, still helpless because of her
+furled sails.
+
+Justin, making a bridge of the small boats tied to the floating pier,
+gained dry land, and continued his conversation with Bobbie across the
+intervening space. "Suppose we cut the luncheon out, and go for a sail
+this afternoon. We can land off Gloucester way and have tea at the
+Lobster Pot."
+
+"Tea, meaning lobster sandwiches," said Bobbie. "Do you know, Justin,
+that the whole coast is blossoming with lobster sandwiches? Once upon a
+time one ate muffins with their tea. But now nobody takes tea. They take
+coffee and lobster sandwiches. And I don't like sea foods, and I don't
+drink coffee. Otherwise it is all right."
+
+"We'll have muffins and jam. And you and Doris shall have a table by
+yourselves, and Bettina and I, and we'll ask Anthony to look after Mrs.
+Martens." He stopped. "No, we won't ask Anthony--he has a fashion of
+claiming Bettina. He's her guardian, you know."
+
+"Look here, Justin. Did it ever occur to you that he'd like to be
+more--than a guardian?"
+
+"It's Diana for Anthony, Bobbie."
+
+"I'm not so sure. Doris says there is something queer about it all----"
+
+"Queer?"
+
+"Oh, about Diana having Bettina here, and then going away and leaving
+her----"
+
+"Sara's been talking. Doris wouldn't think such unpleasant things,
+Bobbie--there isn't anything between Anthony and Betty. There can't be
+anything----"
+
+But even as he said it he was stabbed by the memory of Bettina's radiant
+look of pride as she sat beside Anthony on the night of the yacht club
+dance.
+
+"No man," said Bobbie, "is going to wait forever, and Betty Dolce is a
+very lovely little lady. All the boys at the club are crazy about her,
+and if it hadn't been for Doris there's no telling how I might have
+felt--but Doris is the last one, Justin."
+
+"Good. I'll wigwag from the porch, Bobbie. Keep your eyes open for my
+signal."
+
+Bettina, still hemstitching on white frills, welcomed Justin with a
+charming smile, but with a decided negative to his invitation.
+
+"I'm going out with Anthony."
+
+Justin eyed her reproachfully. "I told you once before that three was a
+crowd----"
+
+"Oh, but this time it isn't three, but two--Anthony and I are going
+alone in his little car, and we are to have dinner at Green Gables."
+
+All the laughter died out of his face. "Oh, I'm afraid you must think me
+all kinds of fool." He turned abruptly to Sophie. "Mrs. Martens, you'll
+go in Bobbie's boat, won't you? He's dying to ask Doris."
+
+"Do you really want me?" Sophie asked, brightly.
+
+"Always, dear lady."
+
+Bettina, bending over her frills, felt a sudden sense of desolation.
+
+"Oh, dear," she said, wistfully. "Why do all the nice things come at
+once?"
+
+With that sigh, joy came back to Justin.
+
+He dropped into a chair beside her. "What time will you get home
+to-night?" he asked.
+
+"At eight. Anthony's office hours begin then."
+
+"May I come up?"
+
+"May he, Sophie?"
+
+"It's my bridge night at the club, dear----"
+
+"Oh----"
+
+"Please," Justin pleaded.
+
+Sophie laughed. "Well, Delia shall chaperon you. Of course you may come,
+Justin."
+
+Justin, signaling Bobbie a moment later, was conscious of a wild desire
+to shout to the four winds of heaven the fact that for one little hour
+he was to have his goddess to himself.
+
+For Justin's coming that night Bettina put on her white crêpe tea gown
+with the little lace mantle. She was very tired after her ride with
+Anthony. There had been no reason for fatigue. He had been most kind and
+considerate. But Bettina's little efforts at conversation had seemed to
+her childishly inadequate. She had felt a sense of deadly depression.
+What should she do to interest him through all the years? Would he
+always have his mind on the things of which she knew nothing? Would she
+always try and never make a success of her efforts to enter into his
+life?
+
+She had tried to tell him about Justin--about their compact of
+friendship--yet the words had died on her lips. Suppose he did not
+understand? Suppose he did not approve? Suppose he should forbid her to
+have a big brother--as he had forbidden her to fly in the "Gray Gull"
+with Justin?
+
+She dared not risk such a catastrophe. She clung desperately to the
+thought of Justin's youth and gayety. No, Anthony might not understand,
+so why should she discuss it with him?
+
+At dinner Anthony roused himself and had played the gracious host. Yet
+on the return trip he had relapsed into silence, and she had again felt
+that sense of desperate failure. Oh, what kind of wife was she going to
+make for this grave Anthony, this great Dr. Anthony, who loved her and
+whom she loved?
+
+It was on the return trip, too, that he had spoken of their coming
+marriage. "Why can't it be soon, Bettina?" he had said. "Why should we
+wait, you and I?"
+
+She knew that there was no good reason. That a few weeks ago she would
+have been radiant at the prospect.
+
+Yet she told him, nervously, that if he didn't mind, it would be better
+to wait--a little. There were things to do.
+
+And he had acquiesced, because of his masculine ignorance of the things
+which must really be done.
+
+"The big house will be ready," he said, "when you are ready."
+
+As she changed her gown on her return home, Bettina meditated soberly on
+the situation. Diana, when they had talked together, had pointed out
+that the women who married such men as Anthony must be content to make
+sacrifices. "He belongs to the world, dear child," she had said; "you
+must remember that, if you would be happy. It must be your joy to help
+him in his great work."
+
+Bettina was beginning to be a little afraid of the future. It was not
+that she did not love Anthony--why, Anthony was the best man in the
+whole wide world. But everybody expected so much of her, and she was not
+quite sure that she should come up to the full measure of their
+expectations.
+
+As she came down the stairs, Justin was waiting for her.
+
+"Oh, you little beauty," his heart whispered; "you little white and gold
+beauty."
+
+She had twisted her hair low on her neck, and her delicate lace mantle
+fell about her like folded gossamer wings.
+
+"We will sit in the library," she said. "I have had a fire built. It is
+so damp and foggy outside. Sophie said you had to come in early from
+your sail on account of it."
+
+"We came near not coming in at all," Justin told her. "Doris was
+terribly scared. But Mrs. Martens was as cool as possible. It's rather
+risky business outside on such a day. The rocks are like needle points
+under the water."
+
+"I'm a terrible coward."
+
+"You only think you are. When are you going to fly with me?"
+
+"Never--please."
+
+He had placed a chair for her by the fire, and stood leaning over the
+back of it.
+
+"Never is a long time--little sister."
+
+"But I should be afraid."
+
+"Not with me."
+
+Silence.
+
+"Not with me." He came around so that he could look into her face.
+"Would you be afraid with me?"
+
+She knew that she would not. She had not been afraid in the storm. But
+these things were not to be told.
+
+She did not meet his eyes, but shook her head.
+
+He was struck by her troubled look.
+
+"Tired--little sister?" he asked.
+
+Her lips quivered. "Very tired."
+
+His heart yearned over her. She seemed such a little thing in that
+stately room with its high ceilings, its massive furniture, its
+book-lined walls. The only light came from the fire, and from a silver
+lamp which hung over Diana's desk. On the table near Bettina was a bowl
+of pink hyacinths, which filled the room with the fresh fragrance of
+spring.
+
+He was conscious of these things, however, only as a setting for her
+beauty. And he was more than ever conscious of his desire to place
+himself between her and the world which might hurt her. "Let me help
+you," he said, earnestly. "Don't you know that my only desire is to
+serve you?"
+
+She considered him, wistfully. "It's dear of you to say that."
+
+He sat down, leaning toward her.
+
+"It isn't dear of me. It isn't even good of me. It's simply
+self-preservation. Don't you know, can't you see that I have only one
+thought--your happiness; only one wish--to be always near you?"
+
+There was no mistaking the significance of his flaming words.
+
+She shrank back. "Oh, you must not say such things."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because. Oh, you called yourself my friend."
+
+"I am more than that," he said, steadily. "I am your lover."
+
+"Please--oh, please."
+
+She began to sob like a little child. "Oh, big brother," she told him,
+"you have spoiled everything."
+
+He knelt beside her chair. "How have I spoiled things?"
+
+"I wanted you for my friend."
+
+"I am your friend, dear one."
+
+Very still and pale she fought against the sweetness of the truth he was
+forcing upon her.
+
+"Please--go away," she whispered.
+
+He rose to his feet. "I shall not give you up."
+
+She rose also, a frail little thing in her floating draperies, and laid
+her hand lightly on his arm.
+
+"There are things which I cannot tell you. But I need a friend. If you
+care for me you'll let me be your--little sister; you won't trouble me
+by saying such things as you have said--to-night."
+
+He tried with all the strength of his young manhood to hide his own hurt
+and meet her need.
+
+"I could kill myself for making you cry. I'm going to be good now.
+Really and truly your good big brother."
+
+She glanced up at him with charming shyness.
+
+"I'll forget the things that you have said to-night--if you won't say
+them again."
+
+"I shall not tie myself to an impossible promise," he repeated, "but I
+am going to tie you to a promise."
+
+"Me?" She faced him.
+
+"Yes. Oh, see here," boyishly, "I brought something for you to-night. I
+have noticed that you don't wear rings, but I want you to wear this." He
+opened his hand and showed her, lying on the palm, a little silver ring.
+"It's just a simple trinket that my sister wore as a child. I'd like to
+think that it would tie you to me always--for remembrance. I had hoped
+that you would let me give you another some time. But this--why, you
+can't object to wearing it--and it would mean a lot to me if you
+would----"
+
+Her slender fingers touched it. "How sweet of you to think of it----"
+
+"Then you'll wear it?"
+
+"Yes--because you are--my friend."
+
+He took her hand in his and fitting the slender band first on one finger
+and then on another found a place for it at last on the little finger of
+her left hand.
+
+"With this ring," he said, softly, "I take you always--for my
+friend----"
+
+Then he stood looking down at her. "What a lovely little thing you are,"
+he said. "You're so tiny that I could pick you up and carry you off, yet
+I tremble when I touch your hand."
+
+She drew a quick short breath.
+
+"You aren't to say such things to me--you know."
+
+"I'll be good."
+
+She knelt down like a child on the hearth-rug, and held her hand forward
+so that the light of the fire might shine on the silver circlet.
+
+"Why, it's engraved," she said, "with two hearts."
+
+"Yes," he said; "your heart and mine."
+
+As she bent forward, the thin chain which she wore about her neck swung
+forward from among the laces of her gown, and, "tinkle, tinkle," sounded
+the chime of the flashing rings which Anthony had given her.
+
+Justin saw her catch at them, saw her look of frightened appeal as she
+thrust them hurriedly back into their hiding-place.
+
+She rose slowly from the rug; slowly she took the little silver ring
+from her finger; slowly she handed it back to him.
+
+"Please, I must not wear it," she said, with a break in her voice. "I
+must give it back to you--my friend."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+IN WHICH BETTINA FLIES
+
+
+In the clear days which followed, Justin gave his undivided attention to
+flying. Not once did he see Bettina. Not once did he join the party of
+young people of which he had been the leading spirit.
+
+In vain did Bobbie formulate enticing plans.
+
+"We'll go to Cat Island with Captain Stubbs, fish all day, and have
+chowder on the rocks."
+
+There had been one glorified fishing trip for Justin with Bettina. He
+wanted no other.
+
+"I've wasted enough time," he said shortly. "I came here to practice
+flying, not to do social stunts."
+
+Sara urged him also. "You haven't played a set of tennis with me since
+you came up," she complained. "Of course I know you're simply crazy over
+Betty Dolce, but that needn't cut me out entirely. I thought my
+friendship meant something to you, Justin."
+
+"It does," Justin told her, honestly, "but I'm not in a mood for
+tennis, and as for Betty Dolce, I haven't seen her for a week."
+
+Sara was cheered by his statement. If his absorption was simply in his
+flying machine, she could wait. Men always returned finally from
+machines to femininity.
+
+So Justin flew and flew, looking down at times upon the tops of the
+houses in the quaint coast towns, at other times having beneath him and
+above him blue sea and blue sky.
+
+And everywhere he went, he knew that people were craning their necks and
+crying out in wonder, for in this part of the world, at least, such
+aerial craft were rare visitors.
+
+And when he grew tired of great heights, he would let his shining ship
+slide down the air currents until it touched the water; then like a
+mammoth aquatic bird it would swim the surface, and the sailors on the
+big yachts would lean out over the sides and hail him, and the motor
+boats would follow him, until, at last, growing impatient of their close
+observance, he would rise again, higher and higher in the golden haze;
+earth would be left behind, and he would be alone with his thoughts.
+
+And he thought always of Bettina.
+
+He thought of her as he had first seen her, in the shadowy room, with
+her shabby black dress and her white and gold beauty. He thought of her
+as she had come toward him under the lilacs, a flower among the flowers.
+Again he saw her dancing, like a wraith, in the moonlight; he saw her,
+in the little blue serge frock and shady hat, measuring him with her
+cool eyes; and again, laying plates on the flapping cloth with white
+hands, or racing with him against the wildness of the storm. He saw her
+with her fair wet braids hanging to her knees, and her slender fingers
+twisting among the gold. He saw her with the light of the harness-room
+fire upon her as she promised to be his friend.
+
+But most of all he saw her as she had been that last night in the great
+library, frail and white in her floating draperies.
+
+"You have spoiled everything," she had said.
+
+How had he spoiled everything?
+
+In one moment he would resolve to have it out with her. In the next he
+would plan to go away, to give her up, to forget her.
+
+A few weeks ago he had not known her. He had liked many women, but had
+loved none. He had been heart-whole and fancy free. And now his life,
+his happiness, all of his future, were bound up in this little pale
+child with the wonderful hair!
+
+Up and up, higher and higher. It was like the flight of an eagle.
+
+And far below, on a porch which overhung the harbor, two women watched
+with beating hearts.
+
+"Oh, why will he do it?" Sophie asked, in agonized tones. "It is so
+dangerous."
+
+Bettina caught her breath. "Somehow I can't think of the danger," she
+said. "He isn't afraid, and to me it seems--very wonderful--as if he had
+wings, and could fly--straight up--to heaven----"
+
+As Justin had thought all that week of Bettina, so she had thought of
+him; every moment of the day, and into the night, the vision was upon
+her.
+
+Again she was held by those mocking eyes, again she was thrilled by that
+mad race in the rain. She saw him as he had been on the night of the
+yacht club dance, with his laughing air of conquest; as he had been in
+the great library, saying steadily, "I am your lover----"
+
+He had gone from her, angry, that night because she would give him no
+explanation of her refusal to take the silver ring.
+
+"I cannot, I cannot," she had repeated.
+
+He had caught hold of her hands. "You are not a flirt," he had said;
+"you are too sweet and good for that--but what do you mean by your
+mysteries----Oh, why can't you tell me the truth?"
+
+She had looked at him, dumbly, and he had rushed away, leaving her
+unforgiven.
+
+She had written at once to Diana, asking to be released from her promise
+to keep her engagement secret. "People ought to know," was the reason
+she gave.
+
+She had also telephoned to Anthony. She wanted to see him. To tell him
+that she would marry him as soon as he wished. That would be the
+solution. Then Justin would understand, and would forgive her.
+
+She felt that more than anything in the whole wide world she wanted
+Justin's forgiveness.
+
+Anthony had come, and they had gone into the library where she had
+talked with Justin, and Anthony, preoccupied and silent, had placed a
+chair for her, and had stood where Justin had stood. And she had
+shivered and had begged, "Sit down where I can see you."
+
+He had taken the chair opposite her, and suddenly she had surprised
+herself and him by coming over to him, and slipping to her knees beside
+his chair, and sobbing with her face hidden.
+
+He had lifted her in his arms, and had soothed her like a child. "What
+is it, dear heart?" he had demanded.
+
+And, like a child, she had answered:
+
+"Oh, please, let's get married right away----"
+
+She had explained haltingly that she had been lonely since Diana went
+away, and unhappy. She--she missed her mother--and Diana's house wasn't
+her home. Sophie was dear, but, oh, it would be much better to be
+married as soon as she could get ready.
+
+"And how soon will that be?" gravely.
+
+"In a month. I think everybody should be told now."
+
+He agreed. "Perhaps it should have been announced at once, but Diana
+seemed to think that it was best to wait."
+
+"Diana doesn't know--everything."
+
+"No, but she is wise in many things."
+
+"Anthony?"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"When we are--married, will you and Diana be just as good friends?"
+
+"I hope that we may----"
+
+Something in his tone had made her look up and say quickly, "Oh, I
+_want_ you to be friends. You didn't think that I was jealous--of
+_Diana_?"
+
+He had thought she might be. If she knew the truth she would surely have
+a right to be. But she did not know the truth.
+
+"Why did you ask?" he probed.
+
+"Because," feverishly, "it doesn't seem right, does it, that just
+because a man and a woman are married they should never have any men or
+women friends? There's Bobbie, for example--and--and Justin--I shan't
+have to be just your wife, shall I? I can have them for friends?"
+
+"Of course." Yet even as he said it he wondered if he would care to have
+her allegiance divided--as his was divided. Oh, wise Diana, who had
+refused to be what she had no right to be, what he would not want his
+own wife to be, when once she was bound to him--the dear friend of
+another man.
+
+"You and I," he said, "must try to be all in all to each other." Then
+after a pause, "Do you really love me, child?"
+
+"Oh, yes." Again she drew a sobbing breath.
+
+"I am such an old fellow," he said, in a troubled way, "and you are
+made for bright things and gay things. I wonder if you will be happy
+with an old tired fellow like me----"
+
+In her simplicity she believed that his appeal was that of love, and out
+of the gratitude which she felt that she owed him she tried to respond.
+
+"Oh, I do love you," she whispered, "and when we are married--we shall
+be happy----"
+
+Presently she tugged at the thin chain about her neck, and brought forth
+the rings.
+
+"After this I shall wear them," she said, "for all the world to see."
+
+When Anthony went home he answered Diana's letter. He had sent her
+flowers on the day that she had left--her favorite violets and valley
+lilies. Beyond that he had made no sign.
+
+But now he wrote:
+
+
+  "OH, DEAR WISE WOMAN:
+
+  "During all the days since I received your letter I have not been able
+  to see things as you wanted me to see them. I have raged against Fate,
+  and have been pursued by Furies. I have shut myself away, as far as
+  possible, from the world. At one moment I have doubted your love for
+  me; at the next, I have resolved to follow you, play cave man, and
+  carry you off.
+
+  "I have read and reread your letter, trying to find some weakness to
+  which I could appeal--but I could find none. But finally, as I read,
+  one sentence began to stand out: 'We loved those who died--fighting.'
+  When I got into the swing of that thought it stirred me. I am going to
+  live--fighting--perhaps I shall die--fighting----
+
+  "To-day Bettina has told me that she will marry me in a month. She
+  says that she has written you that it is best that people should know
+  at once. And I think that it is best. I shall try to make her happy,
+  but if I conquer life, if I ever do any great thing or good thing or
+  wise thing, it will be because you have shown me the way.
+
+  "You say, 'When we are old, we can be friends.' How I shall welcome
+  old age, Diana! May the years fly swiftly!
+
+  "ANTHONY."
+
+
+Having squared himself thus with the inevitable, Anthony, a little
+grayer, perhaps, a little more worn and worried, took up life where he
+had left off before Diana came home from Europe.
+
+He had seen nothing, of late, of Justin, except as he had glimpsed him,
+now and then, in the air.
+
+But on the morning on which Bettina and Sophie had watched the flight
+from their porch he came upon the young aviator, near the sheds,
+standing in the midst of an eager group of young folks, adored by the
+girls, envied by the boys.
+
+Amid the clamor of voices he caught the question, "Are you going up
+again this afternoon?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then, over their heads, Justin saw Anthony.
+
+"Bring Betty Dolce up this afternoon," he called, "and I'll show you
+through the shops. There are four ships beside mine in the sheds, and
+they'll be sent out to-morrow. You and she may never have a chance to
+see so many together."
+
+Anthony agreed, and called up Bettina.
+
+She assented eagerly. To-day, then, Justin should see her rings. He
+would ask for an explanation. She would tell him,--and he would
+understand. When he knew that she belonged to Anthony he would forget
+that he had wanted to be anything but her friend, and things would be as
+they had been before.
+
+So, knowing nothing of the hearts of men, she argued in her innocence.
+
+When she saw Justin, she felt that even through her gloves he must see
+the rings. But his eyes were on her face, and she burned red beneath his
+glance.
+
+On an impulse he had asked her. If Anthony brought her, he should see
+her, talk to her. That, for the moment, would give his heart respite
+from the pain which gnawed it.
+
+In the dimness of the great sheds Bettina flitted silently like a white
+moth from place to place. She left the conversation to Justin and to
+Anthony. When Justin made explanations she seemed to listen, but she did
+not look up.
+
+As a matter of fact, she heard not a word. Her mind was on her rings.
+She began to take off her gloves, slowly; dreading, yet craving the
+moment, when Justin should look at her hands.
+
+But he was still explaining to Anthony: "These pontoons do the trick. An
+aeroplane simply flies. But the hydro-aeroplanes fly and swim, and
+that's what makes them so safe when there's water to cross."
+
+As he touched the delicate wires of the framework they gave forth a
+humming noise. "When you're up in the air," he said, "it sounds like the
+crash of chords."
+
+Bettina's gloves were off now. The big diamonds on her left hand seemed
+to catch all the light in the dim room and to blaze like suns!
+
+But Justin was thinking only of Bettina's eyes under her drooping veil,
+and of her cheeks which burned red, and of her lips which were closed
+against any speech with him.
+
+They went on to the last shed, which was open, and from which a track
+descended into the water.
+
+Poised there, in the half-darkness, like a bird at rest, was another
+ship, ready for flight.
+
+"This is mine," said Justin; "the 'Gray Gull.' I wanted to call her 'The
+Wild Hawk,' but changed my mind. Do you remember Kipling's
+
+    "'The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky,
+        The deer to the wholesome wold,
+      And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,
+        As it was in the days of old'?"
+
+"It is one of Diana's favorites," said Anthony. But Bettina said never a
+word.
+
+And just then a boy came to say that Dr. Blake was wanted at the
+telephone.
+
+"It's a hurry call," Anthony came back to tell them. "Would you mind
+walking home with Bettina, Justin?"
+
+Would he mind? Suddenly all the stars sang!
+
+The moment that Anthony's back was turned Bettina felt a frantic desire
+to hide her rings. What would Justin say when he saw them? With Anthony
+there she had felt brave. But now--she turned the rings inward and began
+hastily to put on her gloves. Oh, to-night, after she reached home, she
+would write Justin a prim little note and tell him of her engagement!
+That would be better, of course! She should have thought of it before!
+
+Crashing across her trembling decision came Justin's demand.
+
+"Look here. Why can't you fly with me now? Just a little way, low over
+the harbor? Come----"
+
+It seemed to her that between them was beating and throbbing darkness,
+out of which his eager eyes said, "Come."
+
+"Oh, no," she protested, with dry lips. "Anthony wouldn't like it."
+
+"What has Anthony to do with it?" He had taken her hands in his and was
+crushing them. The rings cut and hurt, but she made no sign; she only
+looked at him large-eyed, and said, not knowing what she said, "He has
+nothing to do with it----"
+
+"Then come----"
+
+She was conscious that he was taking the pins out of her big hat. That
+he was winding her white chiffon veil, nun-like, about her head, so that
+her face was framed. And within this frame glowed her hot cheeks and
+questioning eyes.
+
+"Come," he said, again, and lifted her to her seat and fastened her in,
+and took his place beside her. He whistled, and two men came, and the
+buoyant ship slid down the track toward the water; the big propeller
+waved for a moment its octopus arms, then started with a mighty roar.
+
+For a moment they swam the surface, then, light as a bird, the "Gray
+Gull" soared.
+
+Up and up, with the white yachts in the harbor just beneath them, with
+the gold of the sunshine surrounding them; and out of it his face
+bending down to her.
+
+"Are you afraid?" he asked, as he had asked in the storm.
+
+And she, with her cheeks still burning hot, looked up at him and
+laughed.
+
+"Afraid--with you? Oh, Justin, Justin, I could fly like this--forever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+VOICES IN THE DARK
+
+
+Captain Stubbs' cottage was one of the show places of the town.
+Built before the Revolution, it was of typical English rural
+architecture--one-storied, with a square chimney, and with a garden
+which made it the delight of artists who came from far and near to paint
+it; in the spring crocuses starred the borders, violets studded the lawn
+with amethyst, pale irises and daffodils, narcissus and jonquils stood
+in slim beauty. Later came sweet peas, and the roses followed, hiding
+with their beauty the weather-beaten boards. The late summer brought
+nasturtiums in all their richness of orange and bronze-brown, and in the
+fall, the dahlias blazed.
+
+The captain lived alone, attending to his domestic affairs in a fashion
+which was the envy of less spick and span housekeepers. He would not
+have his home invaded by prying folk, but to his invited and welcome
+guests he would show his carved ivories, his embroideries, heavy with
+gold, his dragon-encircled jars and vases. Everywhere was the charm of
+shining neatness, and flowers were everywhere.
+
+"I think I should have looked for a wife," the captain had told Bettina
+and Miss Matthews one day when they had lunched with him, "if it hadn't
+been for my flowers. I don't need a wife to cook for me. I'm a better
+cook than most women. And I don't need a wife to mend my clothes,
+because every sailor can handle a needle. And I don't need a wife to
+keep the house clean for me--there isn't any woman on earth that makes
+things shine like a man who has been taught to rub brasses and scrub
+down decks. What I'd need a wife for would be to make things pretty, and
+to look pretty herself. But Lord, I ain't the kind to attract a pretty
+woman--and so I just gave it up."
+
+A faint glimmer of resentment had shone in Miss Matthews' eyes. "I guess
+most women are kept so busy that they haven't time to think about their
+looks."
+
+"Well, if I had a wife," the captain had said, "I'd like to have her
+wear bright things. My mother had dimity dresses--there was a pink one,
+like a rose, and a green one that looked like the young grass in the
+spring, and there was one that made me think of forget-me-nots, or the
+sky when there isn't a cloud in it."
+
+Bettina had smiled at him. "How pretty your mother must have been."
+
+"It wasn't that she was so pretty; it was her soft, quiet ways, and
+those bright-colored roses. And I've been looking for that kind of woman
+ever since."
+
+"If your mother," little Miss Matthews had told him, "had lived in this
+day of shirt-waists and short skirts, she'd probably be wearing high
+collars and sad colors with the rest of us."
+
+The emphasis with which the little lady had offered her opinion and the
+flush on her face had made Bettina look at her with awakened eyes.
+"Why--I believe she likes him. She'd be really nice-looking if she'd fix
+her hair----"
+
+To-day, as Miss Matthews stopped for a moment at the captain's gate to
+admire his sweet peas, she was not even "nice-looking." She was pale and
+thin, and had a hoarse cough.
+
+"I'm going home and to bed," she said. "I took cold that day in the
+rain, captain, and it hasn't left me since, and I took more cold
+yesterday, going to school without my overshoes."
+
+"You come right in, and I'll make you a cup of tea," said the captain,
+hospitably. But Miss Matthews refused, wearily.
+
+As she turned away, however, Mrs. Martens came to get the flowers which
+were the captain's daily offering for Diana's table, and the little man
+extended a beaming invitation to both of them.
+
+"You pick your posies," he said, "and I'll get some tea for you and
+bring it right out here. You make her stay, Mrs. Martens; she needs a
+rest."
+
+Sophie smiled at the little teacher. "You ought not to be out at all,"
+she said, sympathetically.
+
+"School closes in four days," explained little Miss Matthews; "after
+that I think I shall fall down and die, but I've got to keep up until
+then."
+
+As the two women stood there at the gate together, they presented a
+striking contrast: Sophie in her black, modish garments, with the look
+upon her face of the woman who has been loved, and who has bloomed
+because of it; Miss Matthews, a faded shadow of what she might have been
+if love had not passed her by.
+
+"How's Betty?" Miss Matthews asked, as she sat down on a bench on the
+little covered porch, and watched Sophie's slender fingers pull the
+sweet peas.
+
+Sophie straightened up. "I'm worried about her," she said. "She and
+Anthony Blake went to see the air-ships, and I had a telephone message
+from Anthony that he had had a hurry call, and that Justin would look
+after Betty. That was two hours ago, and Betty hadn't returned when I
+left to come here----"
+
+Captain Stubbs, appearing with a big loaded tray, gave important
+information.
+
+"Did she have on a white dress?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then she's gone flying with Justin Ford."
+
+"What?" Sophie stood up, and all the fragrant blooms fell at her feet.
+"Oh, surely he wouldn't take Betty up with him. It would be dreadful."
+
+"Now, don't you worry," said the captain; "he ain't goin' to let a hair
+of her head get hurt--he's daffy over her."
+
+"Daffy?" Sophie stared.
+
+"Yep." The captain set his tray on the rustic table. "He and that Betty
+child went with me and Miss Matthews for a day's fishin', and at first
+we didn't notice anything, but after a while we began to open our
+eyes--and, well, we ain't blind, are we, Miss Matthews?"
+
+Miss Matthews, drinking her tea thirstily, took up the captain's story.
+"It rained, and the captain and I wrapped up and stayed by the boat. But
+those young folks ran off, and he was helping her along, and she was
+looking up at him--and--everybody knows what's going to happen when two
+people look at each other that way."
+
+"And if they are flying," the captain chuckled, "they're probably as
+near heaven as it's possible to be this side of the pearly gates."
+
+But Sophie would not treat the subject lightly. "It's bad enough for a
+man to fly," she said, "but he had no right to take that child up with
+him. Where did you see them, captain?"
+
+"I was standing on those rocks out there, and I saw him rise up over the
+harbor. I could see that he had someone with him, so I went in, and got
+my glass, and sure enough, there she was, all in white, with a white
+veil wrapped tight about her head."
+
+"Which way did they go?"
+
+"Straight out beyond the harbor, and up toward Gloucester way--but don't
+you worry, Mrs. Martens; they'll be back before they know it."
+
+"But I do worry," Sophie declared, "and I shall certainly tell Justin
+what I think of his foolhardiness."
+
+"Well, you take your tea," said the captain, soothingly, "and I'll call
+up and see if they have come in."
+
+Taking tea with the captain meant the tasting of many strange and
+wonderful flavors. The little man had clung to all the traditions of his
+seagoing forefathers, who had brought back from the Orient spicy things
+and sweet things--conserved fruits and preserved ginger, queer nuts in
+syrup, golden-flavored tea, and these he served with thick slices of
+buttered bread of his own making.
+
+"You might have had a lobster," he said to Sophie, "if it hadn't been so
+near your dinner time. I've got 'em fresh cooked."
+
+But Sophie shook her head. "I like your sweet things better. Bobbie and
+I are the ones who don't like lobster. He says that I'm a sort of oasis
+in a desert of shell-fish."
+
+"He's got a nice boat," said the captain, "and he's got a nice girl. I
+like Doris."
+
+Sophie's mind went back to Bettina. "Oh, will you telephone, please,
+captain?"
+
+The captain came back with the news that nothing had been seen of the
+"Gray Gull," but that there was no need to worry, as the day was
+perfectly calm, and that, as he had Miss Dolce with him, he would
+certainly not fly high.
+
+Sophie refused to be comforted. "I shall tell Anthony," she said; "he
+must speak to Justin."
+
+"I don't see what Blake's got to do with it," said the blunt captain;
+"young Ford may tell him to mind his business----"
+
+Sophie's head went up. "Dr. Blake is Bettina's guardian," she said, "and
+if Justin resents his interference, I shall certainly be much
+disappointed in Justin."
+
+Miss Matthews bristled. "You ought to have seen the care he took of her
+that day in the rain. I shall never forget the sight of those two young
+creatures running up the hill--the captain said then he had never seen a
+prettier pair."
+
+In the midst of her worry Sophie felt an insane desire to laugh. Was
+this tragedy only or, after all, a comedy? If Betty loved Justin? Her
+imagination could scarcely compass the consequences of this possibility.
+
+Sophie walked home with Miss Matthews, and, returning to Diana's, met
+Sara half-way.
+
+"Is Bettina flying with Justin?" Sara asked, abruptly.
+
+"Captain Stubbs says that she is. I am very much displeased with Justin.
+It is really unpardonable that Bettina should be subjected to such
+danger."
+
+"She didn't have to go if she didn't want to," said Sara, sharply, "but
+she's crazy about him----"
+
+"My dear----How do you know?"
+
+"Anybody can see it. And I guess it's the real thing this time with
+Justin."
+
+The wistful expression on the sharp little face touched Sophie's kind
+heart.
+
+"It's hardly likely. They have known each other for such a short time."
+
+"Time has nothing to do with love," said the sophisticated Sara. "A man
+and a girl can meet and love in a week and live happy ever after. Oh,
+yes, they can. And they can know each other all their lives and be
+perfectly miserable. Dad and mother grew up together, and you've heard,
+Mrs. Martens, what a life they lived."
+
+The story of the unhappiness of Sara's parents was common property. Yet
+it hurt Sophie to see the hard look in the girl's eyes.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "everything depends on the amount of
+affection which two people give each other--time doesn't count."
+
+Sara was digging the point of her parasol into the sand. "I've never
+seen anything like it with Justin. Why, he's _never_ asked any woman to
+fly with him. And when I looked up a while ago, and saw that he
+had--her--I knew he wouldn't have--asked her--if he hadn't--cared----"
+
+"Perhaps we are making things more serious than they really are," Sophie
+said. But as the two women walked on together, her mental disturbance
+continued. What if Miss Matthews and Sara had spoken the truth? How
+would it affect Bettina--how would it affect--Diana?
+
+"I can't quite understand what all the men see in her," Sara was saying.
+"Of course she's a beauty. But she's so little and white--and she
+doesn't seem so terribly clever----"
+
+"There's a charm she has inherited from those sleepy Venetian ladies,
+who only waked now and then to flash a glance at some man--and hold him
+captive. Those beauties were without conscience. But Bettina has a
+Puritan streak in her which she gets from her mother--that's what makes
+her such a fascinating combination, Sara. She's like a little nun; yet
+one feels instinctively that back of that calm exterior there is force
+and fire."
+
+Sara nodded. "I know. Men don't like the obvious. That's why so many of
+us American girls fail to inspire grand passions. We have no
+surprises--no high lights or shadows--it's all glare----"
+
+"I'm not sure, my dear, but that, in the long run, such women make men
+happier than the other kind. In this practical world there's little room
+for varying moods."
+
+"If Justin marries Bettina," said Sara, "they'll live on rhapsodies."
+She drew a quick short breath. "There won't be any commonplaces. They're
+both made that way. It will be all romance and roses----"
+
+"My dear--aren't we taking things a bit for granted?"
+
+"You'll see. You haven't watched them as I have."
+
+They had reached Diana's house, and Sophie asked Sara to come in.
+
+"I can't. It's getting late and I must dress for dinner----"
+
+"Some other time then, dear?"
+
+"Yes--I shall love it." Then, with some hesitation, "I'm afraid I've
+said more than I should----"
+
+Sophie bent and kissed her. "Not a bit. I'm a perfect keeper of
+confidences--and not a soul shall share what you've told me----"
+
+Delia met Mrs. Martens in the hall.
+
+"Dr. Blake's on the porch," she said, "and he's asking about
+Bettina----"
+
+"Hasn't she come?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What time is it, Delia----"
+
+"Half-past six----"
+
+"Of all the mad things to do," said Anthony, as Sophie went out to him.
+"I shall certainly call Justin to strict account--for asking her----"
+
+"She shouldn't have gone," Sophie said. "I can't imagine how he induced
+her. She's such a little coward."
+
+"They've been away three hours. I went over to the sheds and started a
+motor boat to search for them. They are beginning to realize over there
+that something may have happened."
+
+"Did Justin ask Betty while you were with her?"
+
+"No. He simply showed us around, and said he'd walk home with her. Oh,
+the young fool, the young fool. He can risk his own life if he
+chooses--but he had no right to take--that child----"
+
+The telephone rang, and Sophie, answering, found Justin at the other
+end.
+
+"We're at Gloucester, safe and sound. I'm awfully sorry if you've
+worried, Mrs. Martens. But I could not get to a 'phone before this.
+We'll come back by train, and Betty says you're not to wait dinner.
+We'll get something here. We're all right, really--only sorry if you are
+upset."
+
+"We are very much upset," Sophie told him, severely. "Anthony is here,
+and he is extremely anxious."
+
+"He needn't worry," grimly. "I can take care of her."
+
+Mrs. Martens, explaining the situation to Anthony a few minutes later,
+refrained, tactfully, from giving Justin's exact words.
+
+Anthony dined with her, then went off to see Miss Matthews, who had
+asked him to prescribe for her cold.
+
+"Call me up when Bettina comes," he said, as he left.
+
+Sophie promised, and watched him drive away in his little car. She had
+never seen him so nervous, so irritable. Was this what the thwarting of
+his life would mean--that he would let go of the serenity which had made
+his presence a benediction to his little world?
+
+Or was it really love for Bettina which so disturbed him? Stranger
+things had happened. Diana was away--Bettina was beautiful--Justin was
+in the field to measure lances.
+
+With Peter Pan for company, Sophie waited on the porch for the recreant
+pair.
+
+When they arrived it was very dark, and she could not see their faces.
+But what had made that difference in their voices--that subtle,
+thrilling difference?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+GLORY OF YOUTH
+
+
+When Bettina cried, "I could fly with you,--forever," the light of a
+great joy leaped in Justin's eyes. But he said nothing; he merely set
+his hand more steadily to steering.
+
+And Bettina was content to be silent; to drift on and on in this golden
+world, where there was just herself and the youth with the shining eyes.
+
+Far beneath them several racing yachts seemed flung like white flower
+petals on the surface of the sea; two girls in red coats on the
+club-house tennis courts made glowing spots of color; the crowds of
+people on the rocks, with their heads upturned to view the fairy ship of
+the air, were as formless and as lacking in life and movement as a
+patchwork quilt.
+
+Bettina felt no wonder. Her mood was one of heavenly enchantment; having
+passed the first gate of the great adventure, no small detail could seem
+strange.
+
+If in those exquisite moments she remembered Anthony, she gave no sign.
+Somewhere, perhaps, down there in the darkness, was a weary man working;
+there were sick people; pain was there and suffering. But such things
+belonged to an existence in which she had no part. It was as if she had
+died, and, rising above the earth, looked pityingly on those who still
+struggled and strove.
+
+She had a sudden whimsical memory of a Sunday-school song which had
+appealed to her childish imagination:
+
+    "I shall have wings, I shall have wings,
+          I shall have wings, some day----"
+
+Years ago she had sung it with a half hundred enthusiastic youngsters.
+Her vision, then, had dealt, somewhat hazily, with golden crowns, with
+plumed pinions, and with ultimate bliss; but never had her imagination
+compassed such a moment as this!
+
+Above the noise of the motor Justin was aware of the lilt of her fresh
+young voice:
+
+    "I shall have wings, I shall have wings----"
+
+The humming wires keyed the hackneyed tune to a sort of celestial
+harmony:
+
+    "Bright wings of love, from God above,
+         To bear my glad soul away----"
+
+Justin glanced down at her rapt face.
+
+"Do you like it?"
+
+"It is--heaven!"
+
+As she again took up the little song, he joined in, and they finished
+the last verse triumphantly; then they looked at each other and laughed.
+
+"I used to sing it in Sunday-school," Bettina explained.
+
+"So did I," and these simple sentences, in their uplifted mood, seemed
+fraught with great meaning.
+
+They were beyond the harbor now. Ahead of them and to the right was the
+open sea; to the left, the town, with its church steeples like pin
+points beneath them, its most imposing buildings no bigger than
+mushrooms.
+
+"Are we so very high?"
+
+"Not so high, perhaps, as it seems to you. It is perfectly safe."
+
+On and on they went, leaving the lighthouse behind them, leaving behind
+them the harbor and the town, passing, finally, the great forest through
+which they had raced in the rain.
+
+Then Justin had asked, "Do you remember?"
+
+And Bettina had answered, "Shall I ever forget?"
+
+The gulls circled below them, uttering mewing cries. It was as if they
+protested against the intrusion of this bird man and bird woman in a
+realm which had belonged to winged things since the world began.
+
+They came presently to a long and lonely stretch of beach, above which
+Justin sailed, low, and, relaxing his vigilance for the first time, he
+began his eager wooing--all fire and rapture.
+
+And Bettina trembled--and listened.
+
+It seemed to her that throughout her life she had waited to hear that
+which Justin was saying to her now.
+
+"You were made for me--dear. In my dreams there has always been a girl
+like you--little and white and helpless--but vivid, too, in flashes.
+When I saw you for the first time in that dark room on that rainy day I
+knew that you were--mine. I know I'm not good enough for you. I know
+that if you should ever marry me I should thank God on my knees every
+day of my life. But it isn't conceit which makes me believe that you and
+I have been coming toward each other always. I don't know why you gave
+me back the silver ring. At this moment I don't care--although the other
+night my world went to pieces--but just now, what you said,--and the
+way you said it, that you would fly with me forever,--made me feel that
+all the things I had hoped were true----"
+
+Bettina felt as if their souls were bared. What conventional thing could
+she say which would hide her joy? Her eyes would tell him though her
+lips might not.
+
+As if he read her thoughts he bent down to her. "Look at me," he urged,
+and again, "My dear one--is it, then, really--true?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She knew now that she was Justin's and he was hers until the end of
+time. By all the white wonder of her thoughts she knew it. By all the
+quickened blood in her beating heart. What she had felt for Anthony was
+the affection of an unawakened nature--she had given him gratitude,
+friendship--but between them were the years across which she must look
+somewhat timidly; between them was his sadness, which oppressed her, and
+his profession, which she feared.
+
+But here was youth, which she understood, and romance, for which she had
+longed, and love at white-heat.
+
+Thus, as she soared with Justin, she forgot past promises and future
+judgments, and whispered, "It is true----"
+
+After that they talked in the language of youth and love.
+
+"Do you know how pretty you are?"
+
+"You think that I am pretty because you--like me."
+
+"I think it because I--love you."
+
+The echo of their light laughter went trailing after them as the song of
+a lark trails through the blue.
+
+Softly, at last, Justin brought his shining ship down to the surface of
+a little bay.
+
+Two men at work on the beach came out in a dory in answer to his call.
+
+They were eager and curious, and glad to tow the queer craft into
+shallow water, to make it fast, and to watch it for a time.
+
+"We will walk about for a bit," Justin said to Bettina, "and go back at
+sunset."
+
+Bettina demurred. "It's really late now," she said, with her eyes on the
+eastern horizon, where the first gray haze of twilight was beginning to
+gather.
+
+"Look the other way. There's all the gold of the west, and it won't be
+dark for hours."
+
+"But Sophie will worry."
+
+"She will think you're with Anthony--he's nice and safe."
+
+"Perhaps some one will have seen us, and have told her, and anyhow, I
+must get back for dinner."
+
+"Any one may eat a dinner, but for you and me there may never be another
+moment like this!"
+
+Following a steep path they came presently to a curious and lonely spot.
+Here was an ancient burying place. On a rocky headland, overlooking the
+entrance to the harbor and the wide sweep of the sea beyond, the first
+dead of the colony had been buried; here lay the forefathers of the
+town. Many of the stones had fallen; others stood sturdily where they
+had stood for centuries. Strange old stones they were, of gray slate,
+etched with forbidding symbols of skulls and crossbones.
+
+In one corner was a monument of later erection. It had to do with the
+memory of more than a hundred men who had been lost in a September gale
+off the fishing banks.
+
+Bettina shivered as she read the carved history.
+
+"Oh, how did the women stand it," she said, "to come here to the top of
+this hill, week after week, watching? To wonder and worry and fear. To
+wake in the middle of the night and know that their husbands and lovers
+were out in the blackness and storm. And then at last to see the boats
+coming in, and not know whether the ones they loved were on board--to
+find, perhaps, at last, that they were not on board. How did they stand
+it?"
+
+"As you would have stood it, if you had been one of them----"
+
+"Would I?" wistfully. "Do you think I could be brave and patient?"
+
+"You could be everything that is good and beautiful----"
+
+She did not smile or blush. All the glamour of their flight had fallen
+from her. The old cemetery with its gruesome headstones oppressed her.
+The purple shadows of the twilight seemed to circle the world.
+
+She shuddered and one little hand caught at the sleeve of Justin's coat.
+
+He glanced down at her. "My dear one, what is it?"
+
+Her frightened eyes pleaded. "I--I don't like it here. I'm afraid."
+
+"With me--silly. You weren't afraid up there in the clouds."
+
+"This is--different. It seems down here as if the whole world
+were--dead----"
+
+"You're tired. Look here, I'm going to carry you up this hill."
+
+As he said it, masterfully, she felt herself swept up into his strong
+young arms.
+
+"Put me down!"
+
+He drew his head back to look at her.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I'll tell you in a minute. Put me down."
+
+He set her on her feet, and she stood there, swaying, her lips parted.
+
+At last she said, "I love you," but held out her hand as if to keep him
+from her. "I love you--but I mustn't let you--love me."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because--oh, Justin," she was stripping off her gloves, "oh, I've tried
+to hide these," pitifully, "to hide these from you. I wanted my little
+moment of happiness, too. But now you've got to know."
+
+The gloves were off, and the last rays of the setting sun, striking the
+great jewels, brought fire which seemed to blind Justin's eyes.
+
+He caught her hands in his, roughly. "Who gave them to you?" he
+demanded. "Who gave them to you, Bettina?"
+
+But all his doubts and fears had crystallized to certainty before she
+whispered, "Anthony."
+
+"Do you mean that you are going to marry--Anthony?"
+
+She nodded. "He loves me, Justin."
+
+"And you love him?"
+
+Her head went up. "I told you just now that--I loved--you. But I've
+promised Anthony. He asked me that day before I went to Diana's. The day
+after I first saw you. And he was so good, and I was so lonely, that I
+thought that--I cared. I didn't know then what it meant--to care."
+
+His eyes, which had been stern, softened.
+
+"And now that you know," he asked, "what are you going to do?"
+
+She twisted her fingers nervously.
+
+"I don't know," she faltered. "What shall I do, Justin?"
+
+"Oh, my dear," he said, brokenly, "Anthony is my friend. I can't steal
+you--like a thief--in the night----"
+
+Her lips quivered. "I knew that--you'd say that. I am glad--you--said
+it."
+
+He turned away. "If you knew how hard it is for me to say it."
+
+She laid her little hand on his arm.
+
+"If you only won't be angry with me."
+
+He turned back to her. "I am not angry," he said, "only I have been--all
+sorts of a fool."
+
+She sank down hopelessly on a broken stone bench, backed by evergreen
+trees. "You haven't been a fool," she said. "I should have told you. But
+I couldn't. Diana wouldn't let me."
+
+[Illustration: SHE SANK DOWN HOPELESSLY]
+
+"What did Diana have to do with it?"
+
+"She said that Anthony's friends ought to know me before the engagement
+was announced."
+
+"So you and she have talked it over, and Sophie, I suppose--and how many
+others?" His laugh was not good to hear.
+
+"Oh, please. I don't think any of us could have guessed that--things
+would have turned out like this. I didn't dream how you felt and how I
+felt until the other night, when you tried to give me the little ring.
+Then I knew."
+
+"That you loved me?"
+
+"No. That you loved me. I--I didn't know the other until to-day when you
+said--'Come.'"
+
+"Didn't you know that day in the rain?"
+
+"No, oh, _no_. I thought it was just because we were both young, and
+good friends, and happy together."
+
+"And I thought it was because our spirits met--in the storm."
+
+He flung himself down beside her. "To me the whole thing seems
+monstrous. Anthony is years too old for you, even if you loved him. And
+you don't love him."
+
+"Yet I can't break a promise, can I?"
+
+He moved restlessly.
+
+"If you told him, he would release you, of course. But somehow I'd feel
+an awful cad to have Anthony think that I had taken you from him."
+
+"How do you think I should feel?" The color flamed in her cheeks. "Don't
+you know that a woman has just as fine a sense of honor in such things
+as a man?"
+
+As she made a movement to rise, he caught at the floating ends of her
+white veil, and held them, as if he would thus anchor her to himself.
+
+"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I'm afraid I'm too desperately unhappy to
+know what I am saying."
+
+"I know--I'm unhappy, too."
+
+With the fatalism of youth they had accepted their tragedy as final. He
+still held the end of her veil in his hand, but her face was turned away
+from him.
+
+A little breeze came from the west, and there was a dark line of cloud
+below the gold.
+
+"We shall have to go home on the train," Justin said, as he noted the
+whitecaps beyond the bay. "There's too much wind to make it safe for us
+to fly."
+
+"Then we must go now. It is very late."
+
+"I can telephone Sophie from the gatekeeper's house. It's on the other
+side of the church. And I'll telephone to the men to come after the
+hydro-plane."
+
+She assented listlessly, and they walked on.
+
+The church, when they reached it, showed itself an ancient edifice.
+Built of English brick, it had withstood the storms of years. Its bell
+still rang clearly the call to Sunday service, and at its font were
+baptized the descendants of the men who slept in the old cemetery.
+
+As they reached the steps, a man who was digging a grave hailed them.
+"If you and your wife would like to look in," he said to Justin, "you
+can bring the key to me at the gate. I'll be there when you come."
+
+He unlocked the door for them. They heard his retreating footsteps, and
+knew that they were alone. Then Justin spoke with quickened breath.
+"That is as it should be--my wife----"
+
+Out of a long silence she whispered, "Please--we must not--we must
+not----"
+
+"Surely we have a right to happiness----"
+
+She had left his side, and her voice seemed to come faintly from among
+the shadows: "Hasn't everybody a right to happiness?"
+
+"Why should we think of everybody--it is my happiness and yours which
+concerns us--sweetheart."
+
+She did not answer, and, following her, he found that she had entered
+one of the high-backed, old-fashioned pews, and was on her knees.
+
+Hesitating, he presently knelt beside her.
+
+It was very still in the old church--the old, old church, with its
+history of sorrow and stress and storm. One final blaze of light
+illumined the stained glass window above the altar, and touched the bent
+heads with glory--the bright uncovered head and the veiled one beside
+it.
+
+Then again came dimness, darkness--silence.
+
+They were in the vestibule of the church before he spoke to her.
+
+"Did you pray," he asked, "for me?"
+
+"I prayed for all men and women--who love----"
+
+He laid his hands on her shoulders and gazed down at her with all of his
+heart in his sad young eyes. "There must be some way out of this," he
+said. "Surely God can't be so cruel as to keep us apart. Why, we are so
+young, dear one, and there's all of life before us--think of all the
+years."
+
+The look with which she met his glance had in it all the steadfastness
+of awakened womanhood. "You said out there that I could be brave and
+patient. Help me to be brave--big brother."
+
+"Don't," he said, hoarsely; "don't call me that. It's got to be all or
+nothing. But whatever comes, whether you marry me or marry Anthony--I'm
+going to love you always. I'm going to love you until I die, Bettina."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PENANCE
+
+
+Miss Matthews' cold proved to be bronchitis, and Bettina insisted on
+nursing her.
+
+"Please let me," she said to Anthony the morning after her flight with
+Justin. "I suppose I'm in disgrace, anyhow, and this shall be my
+penance. Only it won't be very severe punishment, for I shall love to
+take care of her."
+
+"What good is penance if you aren't penitent? I'm perfectly sure that if
+that young rascal should ask you to go again you'd go."
+
+"It was glorious."
+
+"But very dangerous."
+
+She shrugged. "You do dangerous things every day. Doesn't he, Sophie?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That's different. I do such things to help others."
+
+"And I do them to please myself."
+
+"And to please Justin?" There was an impatient note in his voice. "I
+have told him that he must not ask you again, Bettina."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"He didn't say a word." Anthony smiled at the memory. "He just looked at
+me as if he would like to punch my head, and turned on his heel and left
+me."
+
+"Are you angry with him?" anxiously.
+
+"He's angry with me."
+
+"Oh, dear!" Betty sighed. "Sophie gave me a terrible lecture when I came
+home last night; didn't you, Sophie? And now you and Justin have fallen
+out, and I'm the cause of all the trouble. I'll go and look after Letty
+Matthews, and you can learn to love me when I'm gone."
+
+In spite of the lightness of her tone, there was a quiver in her voice
+which brought both of them to her feet.
+
+"My dear child----!"
+
+"Betty dear----"
+
+Bettina smiled at them with misty eyes. "Please let me go, and when I
+come back everything will be straightened out--and we'll all
+live--happy--ever after----"
+
+Nothing that they could say would change her decision, and they were
+vaguely troubled by it, feeling that she had erected between herself and
+them some barrier of reserve which they could not break down.
+
+Sophie voiced this in a worried way when Bettina had gone up to pack the
+little bag which Anthony was to convey with her precious self to Miss
+Matthews. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said so much, but when she came she
+seemed so unconscious of the dreadfulness and danger that I'm afraid I
+scolded a bit."
+
+"She's such a child! Do you think she will ever grow up?"
+
+"Of course. Diana feels that she has many womanly qualities----"
+
+Anthony, standing by the window, fixed his eyes steadily on the blue
+distance as he asked:
+
+"What do you hear--from Diana?"
+
+"I've a letter." Sophie rummaged among the papers on her desk. "And
+there's a bit at the end that will please you--you know Diana and her
+enthusiasms----"
+
+"Yes, I know----"
+
+His head was still turned away as she opened the thick folded sheets.
+
+"Shall I read it to you?"
+
+"Please."
+
+"She says she likes the hotel, and the people, although she doesn't see
+much of them. But this is the part you'll appreciate:
+
+"'There's a wonderful bit of woodland, Sophie, back in the hills, and
+every day I go there and dream. I thought for a while that I had lost my
+dreams--but now they are coming to me again in flocks--like doves. And
+yesterday came the best dream of all. I have been trying to think what I
+could do with my future, and I've thought of this: I'll build a place up
+here in the forest where Anthony's sick folk can come when they begin to
+get well, and thus I can finish the work which he begins----'"
+
+She paused, as Anthony faced her. "Why didn't she write that to me?" he
+demanded, almost roughly. "Didn't she know it would mean more to me than
+to you--than to anybody----?"
+
+Then with the sudden consciousness that he was showing his heart he
+stammered, "Forgive me--but you know what I think--of Diana?"
+
+Sophie was infinitely tactful. "Of course I know what you think of
+her--she's the most wonderful woman in the whole wide world; and that's
+a great plan of hers--to have a haven for your convalescents."
+
+He made no answer, but just stood very still, looking out, and when
+Bettina came down with her little bag, they went away together.
+
+Miss Matthews in a gray flannel wrapper was shivering over an inadequate
+fire.
+
+"Why aren't you in bed?" the doctor asked.
+
+"Because there is no one to answer my bell, and no one to wait on
+me--and I'm perfectly sure that if I ever let myself go to bed I shall
+die."
+
+"Nonsense," briskly. "I've brought Betty back with me, and she's going
+to stay and see that you're made comfortable."
+
+Miss Matthews' face brightened. "She's the only person in the world that
+I'd have fussing over me."
+
+"I shall stay here and boss you to my heart's content," Bettina told
+her.
+
+"Oh, dear," Miss Matthews sighed rapturously, "how good that sounds.
+I--I want to be bossed. I'm so tired of telling other people what to
+do--that last day at school I thought I should go to pieces."
+
+"Well, you're not going to pieces," Anthony assured her; "you're going
+to bed. And when I come back I shall expect to find you asleep."
+
+Bettina, coaxing Miss Matthews to be comfortable, brushed her hair in
+front of the revived fire.
+
+"What pretty hair you have," she said, as she held it up so that the
+light might shine upon it. "What makes you spoil it by doing it up in
+that tight knot?"
+
+"I don't know any other way," wailed Miss Matthews. "I've never had time
+to be pretty."
+
+"I'm going to braid it," said Bettina, "and by evening it will be
+waved."
+
+Miss Matthews submitted, luxuriously. "It seems so nice to have some one
+fussing over me. I don't believe anybody ever brushed my hair before."
+
+Bettina, having hunted out a box of her own belongings, was trying
+different colored ribbons on the little lady's pale brown locks.
+
+"Do you know, Letty, pink is your color? Yes, it is. Blue makes you look
+ghastly. Now I'm going to tie this twice around your head so that it
+will hide all the tight pigtails--I got that idea from Diana."
+
+As she finished the somewhat elaborate process, there came steps
+outside.
+
+"It's just me," said the voice of the little captain.
+
+Bettina peeped through the door, and announced; "Miss Matthews is sick."
+
+"I know. I met Anthony Blake, and he told me; and what I want to know
+is, can I do anything----?"
+
+"Nothing--thanks."
+
+"Yes, he can," said the hoarse voice of the invalid. "He can come in. If
+he doesn't mind my head, I shan't mind him."
+
+The captain, entering, found Miss Matthews in a big chair, her feet
+covered by a steamer rug, her gray flannel apparel hidden by a white
+wool shawl which had belonged to Betty's mother, and topping all was the
+wonderful head-dress of rose-colored ribbon, beneath which Miss
+Matthews' plain little peaked face looked out wistfully.
+
+"Well, now," said the captain, as he shook hands, "that pink becomes
+her, don't it?"
+
+Miss Matthews blushed. "Betty fixed it."
+
+"I always did like bright things on wimmen," said the captain,
+earnestly, "and I like that pink."
+
+"Of course you do," said Betty; "all men like pink, except those who
+like blue, and now you must go away, for I've got to put my patient to
+bed."
+
+"Don't you cook anything for her," said the captain, as he backed out
+of the door, his eyes still gloating over the rosy-beribboned lady on
+the hearth-rug. "I'll bring you over a bowl of hot chowder to-night, and
+if there's anything else you want, you just let me know."
+
+"Delia will look out for the other things," said Betty; "she's going to
+send little Jane to help me. But we shall be very glad to have the
+chowder."
+
+With Miss Matthews asleep at last, Bettina sat down to write a note to
+Justin.
+
+It was very brief, and began abruptly:
+
+"I am going to tell Anthony. I lay awake all night and thought it out.
+It wouldn't be fair for me to marry him--unless he knew. I'd get to be
+just a shivery shadow, Justin, afraid that he would find that I didn't
+love him--that I loved somebody else.
+
+"But I can never tell him with his grave eyes watching me, so I'm going
+to write, now--to-night. It almost seems as if poor Letty had been made
+a sort of instrument of Providence so that I could be here at this time.
+I couldn't stay at Diana's with everything over between me--and Anthony.
+
+"Oh, Justin, will he ever want to be friends with us again? Will Diana
+ever forgive us?
+
+"I wish you were here. Yet you mustn't be here--not until everything
+is settled. Somehow I don't dare think that we can ever be happy. It
+doesn't seem right to think of it, does it?
+
+"_But I love you._"
+
+She gave her note to the little captain when he came with the chowder.
+
+He brought something beside the chowder. In a square box, smelling of
+sandalwood, was an exquisite kimono of palest pink crêpe, embroidered
+with wisteria blossoms.
+
+"It has been lying in an old trunk for years," he exulted, as he shook
+it out before her delighted eyes. "When I saw her," he nodded toward the
+door of the inner room, "when I saw her with that pink ribbon in her
+hair, it just came to me how nice it would be if she had a wrapper or
+somethin' to go with it. And after I got home I went rummagin' around
+until I found this."
+
+"It's lovely," said Bettina; "she'll be simply crazy over it, captain."
+
+"The funny part of it is that I bought it in foreign lands, thinking
+that some day I might get married, and I'd give it to my wife--and now
+I'm givin' it to her."
+
+Bettina sparkled. "Oh," she said, "I believe you're in love with her,
+captain."
+
+The captain sat down in a chair by the fire. "Well," he said earnestly,
+"it's like this. I ain't ever thought of her that way, exactly. It
+always seemed to me that she knew so much, and that I was such a rough
+old fellow. But lately--well, she's been lonely, and she ain't been
+well. And all of a sudden it has kind o' seemed to me that, if I ain't
+smart, I've got a tender heart, and I'd know how to make a soft nest for
+her to live in, and it seems to me that maybe, after all, she might
+throw me in along with all the rest of the reasons for getting married.
+I guess most men are sort of thrown in. Of course the wimmen don't know
+it, but what they get married for is to have a parlor of their own, and
+a kitchen of their own, and somebody to fuss over, and it don't make
+much difference what man they hang their tender affections on, just so
+he provides the kitchen and parlor. Now here's Letty Matthews, all tired
+out with teaching, and this is my time to step in. If she'll ever take
+me she'll take me now, and as soon as she's well enough to hear me say
+it, I'm going to ask her."
+
+"If Letty marries you, it will be because she loves you--she's that
+kind. She'd die sooner than take a man for what he could give her."
+
+The captain's face fell. "Oh, Lord," he groaned, "she won't take me just
+for--myself----"
+
+"You try and see."
+
+"If you can put in a good word for me," the captain urged anxiously,
+"you do it."
+
+"When a man wants to marry a woman," said his young adviser, "there's
+just one way to get her. He must just keep at it, captain."
+
+The captain stood up. "Well, what I want to say is this--I shan't ever
+look at my garden without thinking of her sittin' some day among the
+flowers, I shan't ever eat a meal without thinking how nice she'd look
+pourin' out my coffee in a nice bright dress, and I shan't ever go for a
+day's fishin' without seein' her in the other end of the boat. And every
+time I shut my eyes, I'll think of her wearin' pretty things like my
+mother used to wear. Why, I've got money, that I can't ever use, just
+lying in the bank and waitin' for somebody to come and spend it. And
+while I like my own way of doin' things, I can get a likely man to help
+around the house."
+
+"A man?"
+
+"Yep. I couldn't ever boss a maid. And I ain't goin' to let her"--he
+jerked his head toward the inner door--"I ain't goin' to let her drudge
+and cook and scrub. So I'll get some lad that's been a ship's cook, and
+don't like the sea, and we'll keep things nice for her, and she can fuss
+around the garden and make calls on the neighbors and sit with me when I
+smoke. For wimmen, after all," concluded the wise little man, "are liked
+best by the men when they'll listen. A talkin' woman may catch a man,
+but the kind that holds him is the kind that sits and listens."
+
+He went away after that, and Bettina carried the pink robe to Miss
+Matthews. "Oh, Letty, dear," she said, "just see how gorgeous you're
+going to be."
+
+She opened the box, and let out a whiff of foreign fragrance. But when
+the beautiful pale-tinted thing was laid across the bed, and Bettina had
+explained that it was the captain's gift, Miss Matthews looked solemnly
+at her friend. "If you think I'm going to wear that," she croaked,
+hoarsely, "you're mistaken."
+
+"Of course you're going to wear it."
+
+"Of course I'm not. I--I'd be afraid."
+
+"Afraid--oh, Letty."
+
+"Yes, I would. I've never worn such things. I'd be afraid I'd get a spot
+on it, and it wouldn't come out. Now when a woman like me has a thing
+like that she just lays it away to look at. Then she always knows that
+she has one lovely garment. But if she wears it, she feels that the day
+will come when it will be gone, and then--she won't own one beautiful
+thing in the wide world--not one single beautiful thing."
+
+Bettina bent over her soothingly. "There," she said, "you wear it once,
+Letty, and then, if you wish, you can put it away."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late at night, Anthony came on his last round of calls and urged that
+Bettina should have a nurse to take her place. But Bettina refused.
+
+"I took care of mother alone," she said. "I can surely do this."
+
+Every moment that she was with him she was conscious of the difference
+in her attitude toward him. She had a nervous fear that he might notice
+the change in her, that he might read her heart with his keen eyes.
+
+But he seemed preoccupied, and just before he went away he said:
+
+"You haven't promised me one thing, Bettina."
+
+"What, Anthony?"
+
+"That you won't fly again with Justin. I think I shall have to ask that
+you make it a definite promise."
+
+"Suppose I won't--promise."
+
+"I think you will," he said, in his decided way. "You and I, all through
+our lives, will each have to defer to the wishes of the other. If I knew
+that a thing worried you greatly I am sure I should refrain from doing
+it--I should like to know that you felt that way about me--Bettina."
+
+Something of the old tender quality had crept into his voice. Once more
+they were alone in the shadowy room--but outside now was the darkness of
+the night instead of the darkness of the storm. Perhaps some memory of
+her first impulsive response to his wooing came to him as he took both
+of her hands in his. "There's some barrier between us of late," he said.
+"I'm a plain blunt man, and I don't know what I may have said or done.
+Have I hurt you in any way, child?"
+
+Here was Fate bringing opportunity to her. This was the moment for
+revelation, confession.
+
+But she could not tell him.
+
+She stood before him with bent head.
+
+"You haven't hurt me, but there is something I should like to say to
+you. May I write it--Anthony?"
+
+He put a finger under her chin and turned her face up to him.
+
+"Are you afraid of me--dear?"
+
+"Oh, no----"
+
+"Then tell me now----"
+
+"Please--no."
+
+For a moment he studied her drooping face, then he patted her on the
+cheek. "Write it if you must--but you're making me feel like an awful
+bear, Bettina."
+
+He sighed and turned away.
+
+She put out her hand as if to stop him, but drew it back. Then she
+followed him into the hall, and stood watching him, with the light from
+the old lantern again making a halo of her fair hair. But this time she
+did not go down to him in the darkness. The spell was upon her of a pair
+of mocking eyes, and of a voice which had sung with her celestial
+harmonies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+HER FATHER'S RING
+
+
+It was late the next night before Bettina found time to write a letter
+to Anthony. The town clock had struck ten, and Miss Matthews was asleep
+in the inner room. As Bettina settled herself at her desk there came
+through the open window the fragrance of the sea--the night was very
+still; she could hear across the harbor the beat of the music in the
+yacht club ballroom, and there was the tinkle of a mandolin on some
+anchored boat.
+
+She found it difficult to put on paper the things which she decided must
+be said. Striving to explain she tore up sheet after sheet, then,
+growing restless at her repeated failure, she rose from her desk and
+crossed the room to the cabinet in the corner. In one of the drawers was
+a packet of letters from her mother. They were exquisite in phrasing and
+in sentiment. She wondered if she might not borrow from them something
+of their grace.
+
+As she opened the drawer, her eyes fell on the little carved box.
+Mechanically she reached for it, and touched the spring. Then she stood
+staring down at her father's ring!
+
+The words which she had once said to Diana echoed insistently in her
+ears: "People who can love many times, who can go from one person to
+another, aren't worth thinking about."
+
+Why--she was like her father! He had loved once, and then he had loved
+again--and he had broken her mother's heart!
+
+Shuddering, she flung the ring from her, and it rolled under the
+cabinet. She knelt to grope for it, and, having found it, she shut the
+box. But, like Pandora, she had let out a whole army of evil fancies,
+and they continued to oppress her.
+
+When she went back to her desk she could not write, and at last she put
+away her papers and, wrapping herself in her long white coat, climbed to
+the cupola.
+
+She had slept there many times with her mother. With only the stars
+above them, and on each side a view of the wide stretches of the sea,
+they had talked together, and Bettina had learned the beauty of the
+older woman's nature; having suffered much, she had forgiven everything.
+
+"Your father," she would say, "was like a child seeking the pot of gold
+at the end of the rainbow. He was always looking for romance, forgetting
+that the most wonderful romance is that of the hearthstone and of the
+quiet heart. If he had ever really loved he would have known the joy of
+self-sacrifice, of self-effacement--but he did not love----"
+
+"Love is self-sacrifice." Such had been the verdict of the woman who had
+given all, and who had received nothing. It was a hard philosophy,
+acquired after years of dreariness, and the child had listened and
+absorbed and believed. She had heard nothing of love's fulfilment, of
+the raptures of mutual tenderness. Hence she had been content with
+Anthony's somewhat somber wooing, until that moment when she had drifted
+with Justin through infinite space, and had learned the things which
+might be.
+
+The thought of herself as mistress of Anthony's big house by the sea
+weighed heavily upon her. In those great rooms she would move softly for
+the rest of her days. Anthony would work and read and ponder, and when
+he was at Harbor Light she would sit lonely through the gray winter
+evenings, and the sad summer twilights. But with Justin--oh, the
+limitless possibilities!
+
+With him each day would bring its wealth of vivid experience--there
+would be always the glory of his strength, the uplift of his radiant
+youth!
+
+She put the vision from her. So had her father striven for joy, and he
+had missed all the great meanings of life--and she would not be like her
+father.
+
+The wind was rising, and wailed fretfully above the waters. The stars
+were blotted out.
+
+Bettina shivered. What a dark world it was!
+
+She rose and went down-stairs. Again she sat down to her desk. But this
+time she wrote rapidly, and the letter that she wrote was not to
+Anthony!
+
+When she had sealed and stamped it, she crept down the shadowy stairway,
+thence to the narrow street.
+
+The mail box was at the corner, and she sped toward it; as she came back
+on flying feet, a whisper reached her from the darkness of the garden--a
+whisper which made her heart stand still.
+
+"Betty----"
+
+"_Justin_----"
+
+He emerged from the shadows. "I didn't dare to hope I should see you. I
+ran away from the yacht club dance--and I'm due back there now. But I
+wanted you. I think I must have wished so hard that I wished you here.
+I wouldn't ring for fear I should wake poor Miss Matthews."
+
+His eager whisper met no like response. "You shouldn't have come," she
+said, dully.
+
+He bent down to look at her. Under the light from the street lamp he
+could see the disorder of her fair hair, the frightened look in her
+eyes.
+
+"Dear one--what is it?"
+
+"You mustn't call me that. Did you get my letter?"
+
+"Yes. That's why I came--I knew that by this time you would have written
+to Anthony--that you were--free----"
+
+"But I haven't written to Anthony."
+
+"You haven't? Wasn't that the letter you just mailed?"
+
+"No--I was mailing a letter to you----"
+
+A sudden fear clutched him. "What did you have to say to me?"
+
+"That--oh, Justin, I can't give Anthony up----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh----We can't talk here. Come up-stairs quietly--we mustn't disturb
+Letty."
+
+She glided ahead of him, and when he came into the shadowy room she was
+standing by the cabinet.
+
+"I've something to show you," she said, and opened the carved box and
+held it out to him.
+
+"It's my father's ring," she said; "he broke my mother's heart--and I
+won't break Anthony's."
+
+Then, in halting sentences, she told him how that day she had come upon
+the ring. She told him her mother's history. And he listened, and
+insisted at last, tenderly, that she had made mountains out of
+mole-hills. But he found her obstinate.
+
+"I must not break my promise," she insisted. "Happiness could never come
+to us."
+
+And, white and wistful in the face of his flaming arguments, she held to
+her determination until he left her.
+
+He had turned away wrathfully, and had reached the top of the winding
+stairway, when he heard her sobbing.
+
+He came back swiftly, and gathered her in his arms.
+
+"You're mine," he said, holding her close. "You know that, Betty."
+
+She drew back from him. "Please," she begged, and so he let her go, and
+made his way blindly out of the room.
+
+Miss Matthews sleeping feverishly, became aware above the sighing of
+the wind of an intermittent sound of woe.
+
+She sat up and listened, put one foot out of bed, then the other, and
+throwing on her old gray wrapper, wavered toward the threshold of the
+door between the two rooms.
+
+By the flickering light of the candle which burned on Bettina's desk she
+could see the little shaking white figure on the floor.
+
+"Betty child," she said in a hoarse whisper, "dear child--what's the
+matter?"
+
+"Oh," Bettina sat up and pushed her hair back from her tear-wet face,
+"oh, I've waked you up. I think I just forgot that there was any one in
+the whole wide world except myself----"
+
+The expression on her tragic face told keen Miss Matthews that there was
+some deep trouble which needed help.
+
+"You come right into my room," she said. "I don't dare stay up another
+minute. But I couldn't sleep if I tried, with a storm coming, and you
+can tell me all about it----"
+
+But when she was settled luxuriously once more among her pillows, and
+with Betty curled up at the foot of the bed, an awkward silence fell
+between them.
+
+At last Betty said, "Justin Ford was here. He's in love with
+me--Letty--but I sent him away----"
+
+"Why did you send him away?"
+
+"Because--because I'm not going to marry him, Letty----"
+
+"Why not----"
+
+"There's some one else. Some one who gave me these--Letty----"
+
+She lifted her left hand with its burden of sparkling jewels.
+
+"Who on earth?" Miss Matthews demanded.
+
+"Anthony."
+
+"Anthony _Blake_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Miss Matthews dropped back limply.
+
+"You'll have to tell me from the beginning," she said, faintly. "I can't
+quite grasp it----"
+
+And Bettina told--of her loneliness, of Anthony's wonderful offer, and
+of her glad acceptance of it.
+
+"Well, your mother would have been delighted," Miss Matthews said; "but
+somehow it doesn't seem right."
+
+"Why not----?"
+
+"Oh, I'd fixed it up that you were going to marry Justin Ford. Captain
+Stubbs and I watched you that day we went fishing, and if ever two
+young things seemed to be in love--well----"
+
+"I--we are in love, Letty."
+
+"Then why in the world are you going to marry Anthony Blake?"
+
+"Because I've promised--and I can't be like my--father. And I can't hurt
+Anthony--not when he has been so good to me."
+
+She was sobbing again, and into the eyes of the little woman who had
+never had a daughter came a look of motherly solicitude.
+
+"Dear child," she said, "if you are just going to marry Anthony Blake
+because you are grateful, don't you do it. No man wants a woman who
+feels that way--and you wouldn't make him happy----"
+
+"But--I've sent Justin away--and he's angry with me. That is why I was
+crying when you found me----"
+
+She was on her knees now beside the bed, and the old maid's arms were
+about her.
+
+"There--there, dearie, you've thought too much about it, and you've come
+to believe that it's the things you like to do which are wrong. And it's
+really the other way."
+
+Miss Matthews was thinking rapidly. There was some mystery. Anthony
+Blake was in love with Diana Gregory. He had always been in love with
+her. No one need try to tell her that he was not, for she _knew_. Then
+why was he engaged to Betty, and why had Diana gone away?
+
+She had a sudden inspiration.
+
+"Listen, Betty, there's just one person who can straighten things out,
+and that person is Diana Gregory. Men aren't any good at a time like
+this. They think with their heads, but women think with their hearts,
+and that's the kind of thinking that you need most now----"
+
+"But, Letty----"
+
+Miss Matthews waved her away. "You go and write to Diana and mail it
+to-night, and then come back and keep me company. I'm afraid of the
+storm."
+
+It was at that very moment that Anthony was also writing to Diana. When
+he had left Bettina he had gone straight to Harbor Light and into a
+little inner office where he was guarded from all intruders by the
+assistant who sat in the anteroom. Not even a telephone could sound its
+insistent note in this place where the doctor gained, in a reclining
+chair, his few brief moments of rest, or where he worked out the
+intricacies of perplexing problems. Now and then he saw a patient there,
+but rarely. Usually he shut his door against all distracting influences,
+and gave his attention to the things which concerned himself alone.
+
+What Sophie had told him about Diana had sent his thoughts flying to the
+wonder-woman up there in the woods. Even when he had talked to Bettina
+he had felt the consciousness of his thought of her.
+
+Out of a full heart he wrote, holding back nothing, and when he had
+sealed and stamped his bulky missive, he, like Bettina, went forth to
+mail it.
+
+As he passed through the garden a sudden gust of wind scattered a shower
+of rose petals in his path. That there were storms in the distance was
+evidenced by the low rumble of thunder and the vivid flashes of light.
+
+It was on nights like this that his patients grew restless--poor
+abnormal things they were, afraid of life, afraid of death, seeing in
+wind and rain and in the battle of the elements the terrors of the
+supernatural.
+
+But the night fitted in with Anthony's mood. He still wore his white
+linen office coat. His hat was off, and his gray hair was blown back
+from his forehead. The salt air exhilarated him. He felt a sudden
+lightness of heart. He wanted to shout like a boy. He had been grave for
+so long--but now his message had gone forth to Diana--to-morrow she
+would read it, and in two short days the answer would come.
+
+He made his way to the beach; the vivid flashes showed the heaving
+blackness of the waters--the waves came in with a sullen roar.
+
+He thought of the night when he had stood there with Diana, and when the
+moon had made a silver track. To-night there was no light--except
+Minot's--like a star. "I-love-you," it said to the lonely man who stood
+there in the darkness.
+
+From somewhere in the garden a voice called him, then a nurse came
+running.
+
+"I saw you go out," she panted; "perhaps you'd better come, doctor--they
+are getting all worked up about the storm."
+
+Thus was his life made up of duty. There was never an uninterrupted
+moment. His strength was always being drawn upon to uphold the weakness
+of others. To-night his whole nature craved the tumult of the wild
+night. Yet he must calm himself to meet the needs of those who leaned
+upon him.
+
+As he turned to follow the nurse, a big car whirled through the gate,
+and there sounded the trilling laughter of girls, the deeper jovial bass
+of young men.
+
+Beneath the brilliantly-lighted entrance of Harbor Light the car
+stopped, and as Anthony came up, Sara and Doris descended with much
+shaking out of filmy dancing frocks.
+
+Sophie, with seeming unconsciousness of the havoc which the rain had
+wrought on her lovely black gown, made a smiling explanation to Anthony.
+
+"Justin and Bobbie tried to get the top up--but something caught and I
+thought we should all be drenched. And then your Harbor Light shone out
+to welcome us----"
+
+Anthony was glad that they had come. He craved the lightness and
+brightness. He seemed suddenly to be one of them again--not a sad and
+somber being set apart. He had a sense of relief in Bettina's absence.
+It was as if her youth and beauty showed the contrast of his age.
+
+He took them up to his sitting-room, then excused himself to make his
+rounds. "I'm going to have something sent up for you to eat--I know what
+slim fare they give at the club on the nights of the dances. I'll be
+with you soon."
+
+While they waited for him Sara played; Bobbie and Doris danced--and
+Justin talked with Sophie.
+
+He looked worn and white, and a line cut deeply into his forehead.
+
+"I owe you an apology," he said, "for yesterday. But I couldn't help it.
+Bettina was so little and lovely--you know I wouldn't harm a hair of her
+head----"
+
+Something in his voice made Sophie lay her hand on his. "My dear boy, my
+dear boy----"
+
+"I'm awfully hard hit," he said, "but she--she's turned me down. I fancy
+it was our last flight together. Do you remember Browning's 'Last
+Ride'--
+
+    "'And heaven just prove that I and she,
+        Ride, ride--together--forever ride----'?
+
+"Well, my heaven will be a place where she and I shall drift through
+infinite space--together----"
+
+He stood up. Sara was coming toward them--a brilliant little figure in a
+flame-colored gown.
+
+"I'm not going to bore you with my worries," Justin said,
+quickly--"but--I--I wish you'd be awfully good--to Bettina."
+
+Sophie carried away with her that night the vision of his tragic young
+face, and before she went to bed she wrote to Diana, and her letter
+ended thus:
+
+"Oh, dearest girl, oh, dearest girl, what have we done, what have we
+done----!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE "GRAY GULL"
+
+
+The morning after the storm Justin went forth, moodily, for his morning
+flight.
+
+He found opposition, however, to his ascension. "Wait until the
+afternoon," was the advice given him; "there's a nasty wind."
+
+He would not listen, but he delayed his departure, preferring to start
+alone, and eventually the other aviators drifted off, and he made the
+"Gray Gull" ready.
+
+Going down to the pier for a last peep at the weather, he was hailed by
+Captain Stubbs.
+
+"I am going to take Anthony Blake out for a day's fishin'," the little
+man said, as his motor boat chugged comfortably within easy talking
+distance. "He telephoned last night that he wanted a day away from his
+work, and I said that the fish would be running after the rain. I'm
+always mighty glad to have him go with me. He's a born fisherman. His
+great-grandfather and mine fished together on the banks, and our
+grandfathers were part owners in the same schooner. But Anthony's father
+went to the city and studied medicine, and his son followed in his
+footsteps, so that's the way the Blake boys got switched off from
+fishin' as a business. But it's in their blood."
+
+"Look here," Justin interrupted, "I want to ask you a question, captain,
+and it's about Anthony. Did you ever think he was in love with Diana
+Gregory?"
+
+"Well," the captain meditated, "I ain't ever thought much about it. But
+Miss Matthews sees a lot, and she told me once that Anthony Blake
+wouldn't ever look at any other woman but Diana, and that Diana was just
+keeping him on the string."
+
+"I can't exactly fancy Diana as that sort of woman."
+
+"Well, it ain't anything against a woman that she don't know her own
+mind," was the captain's philosophical reflection. "Most men don't know
+their own mind when it comes to marryin'. Only the difference is this: a
+man loses his head and asks a girl, and then he wonders if she's going
+to make him happy. And a woman hesitates about sayin' 'Yes,' but when
+she once decides, she sticks to a man through thick and thin."
+
+In spite of his gloom Justin smiled. "Where did you learn it all,
+captain? You are as wise as if you had been married to a half dozen
+wives."
+
+"There's a sayin'," the captain explained, "that a sailor has a wife in
+every port. That ain't true. Sailors as a rule are constant men. But
+they see a lot of wimmen creatures, and they learn that there ain't much
+difference, when it comes to lovin', between a Spanish lady who flirts
+with her eyes, and a Boston lady who flirts with her brain. They're all
+after the same thing, and that's a home, with a big H, and it's a credit
+to them that they are--otherwise we men wouldn't ever know when to
+settle down."
+
+"Yet it's because of a woman that some of us never settle down."
+Justin's young eyes were looking out stormily upon the gray world. "It's
+because of some woman that we wander and are never satisfied."
+
+The little captain gave him a keen glance. "Well, you won't ever have to
+worry," he said; "all you've got to do is to keep at it till you find
+the right woman. That's what that Betty child said to me the other day.
+'Captain, if a man wants a woman, he's got to keep after her until she
+says 'Yes.'"
+
+"Did Betty Dolce say that?"
+
+"Yes--she's a smart little thing."
+
+But Justin's thoughts were not of her "smartness" but of her pathetic
+loveliness. All night her sobs had echoed in his heart. When he had
+driven his gay party home after their stop at Anthony's, he had ridden
+for miles alone in the storm. He had welcomed the beat of the rain in
+his face. He had yearned for some adventure which would shut out that
+vision of the shadowy room.
+
+But no adventure had been forthcoming, and so he had sought his uneasy
+couch, and had tried to sleep, and had risen at the first crow of cocks.
+
+He brought his mind back with difficulty to the captain. "I'm going up
+this morning, captain. I'll wigwag to you and Anthony if you're
+outside."
+
+"Don't you go," the little captain advised earnestly; "this isn't any
+morning to fly. There's all sorts of storms about, and you can't tell
+what minute you'll get into one."
+
+"Didn't you like to sail your ship in a storm--didn't you like the
+excitement of it--the battle with the wind and waves?"
+
+"That's different. I knew my ship was seaworthy. I knew what I had to
+face in an ordinary storm. But you take one of those Chinese typhoons,
+or a hurricane that blew up from the Gulf, and I didn't enjoy it. Not a
+bit. I'd go miles to get out of one, and I learned this, after I had
+looked death in the face a hundred times, that foolhardiness doesn't
+pay. You go slow, and wait for a quiet day."
+
+Justin laughed recklessly. "I'll take my chances."
+
+"Well, there's no fool like a young fool." The little captain started
+his motor with a jerk, and its comfortable chugging was at once changed
+to an angry snort.
+
+Justin did not at once go back to the sheds. He climbed a path which led
+to the adjoining hotel, and made his way to the writing rooms.
+
+The people who lounged on the porches looked at him curiously as he
+passed. Those who had been there longest whispered to the newcomers the
+magic of his name. More than one girl remarked the beauty of the somber
+young countenance, and the strength of the straight young figure.
+
+In the writing room of the big hotel Justin wrote to Diana. It was his
+last hope. He wrote hurriedly, using the elaborately monogrammed house
+paper, and his script was interspersed with dashes, with now and then a
+boyish blot.
+
+When he had finished he went to the desk of the girl in the corridor who
+sold post-cards and magazines, and bought a stamp.
+
+Anthony was delayed, somewhat, in starting out with Captain Stubbs by
+the news that Miss Matthews was worse.
+
+He found her with a high fever, and he also found Bettina in a state of
+agitated apology.
+
+"I'm afraid I talked to her too late. But we--we were afraid of the
+storm."
+
+"She'll be all right in a few hours, but you've got to get some rest.
+I'll send a nurse."
+
+"No--Sophie said she would come--early this afternoon--and then I can
+sleep--and I've had little naps on the couch----"
+
+As he turned to go he stopped and said, with some hesitation: "You
+didn't write the letter to the Big Bear, Betty."
+
+She blushed. "I'm not going to write it."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because--I've changed my mind about it--I've really nothing to tell
+you--and every woman has a right to change her mind."
+
+She tried to say it saucily, but was not successful, and he, vaguely
+relieved, responded, "I'm glad--that you are not troubled," kissed her
+lightly on her forehead, and went away. And she looked after him and
+sighed, and wondered if all the years which stretched before them would
+be as dreary as this.
+
+The arrival of the little captain broke in upon her thoughts. "You give
+her these," he said. "I can't stay a minute. I'm going out with Anthony
+for a day's fishin'."
+
+He rushed away, leaving Bettina with her arms full of pink roses.
+
+She took them in to Miss Matthews. "Letty," she said, "the captain
+brought them. Isn't he romantic? He is making pink your color. I think
+it's dear of him."
+
+Miss Matthews blushed. "I'd surely never have picked out Captain Stubbs
+for the romantic kind, but you never can tell."
+
+"No, you never can tell," Betty agreed, and stood looking idly out of
+the window.
+
+All at once she gave startled attention.
+
+"Letty," she said, "Justin is flying."
+
+Miss Matthews, half asleep, murmured, "Well, I'm glad you're not with
+him," and Bettina, recalled to her obligations to the invalid, answered
+with assumed carelessness, "So am I," and measured out Miss Matthews'
+medicine, and talked no more.
+
+But her heart was beating madly as she followed his flight. He was up
+there--alone. Up there in that wonderful world! Was he thinking of her?
+Was he hearing, again, those celestial harmonies?
+
+To-day there was no sunshine--but as he circled against the background
+of moving clouds her thoughts went to that wild hawk in "the wind swept
+sky."
+
+She knew nothing of the danger. She did not know that, as yet, his
+machine was not perfected to a point where it could brave with immunity
+such weather as was threatened by the brooding sky. She only saw his
+flight--and her hurt heart craved the place which had been hers for a
+few brief moments of rapture.
+
+When at last he was out of sight, she went about her little duties, but
+came back again and again to the window, watching for the time when he
+should reappear.
+
+Anthony and the captain, half-way across the harbor, said things about
+Justin's recklessness, and spoke of the danger.
+
+"Some day he'll get hurt," was the captain's conclusion, "and then he
+won't ever fly again."
+
+"Yes." Anthony's eyes were following the "Gray Gull," which was now
+beyond the harbor and heading for the open sea; growing smaller and
+smaller, it was at last a mere speck on the horizon.
+
+Then the captain and Anthony, having reached a place offshore which
+promised a good catch, put out their lines and entered at once upon that
+ecstatic state of watchfulness which is the heritage of the true
+fisherman.
+
+The relief which Anthony felt from the cares which had oppressed him was
+magical. He was sailor enough to love the swell of the waves and the
+rippling music of the water as it slipped under the anchored boat; he
+was fisherman enough to be thrilled by the chances of capture; he was
+artist enough to gloat over the beauty of the dull morning--the white
+gulls circling overhead, the black rocks sticking their spines above the
+gray sea, a phantom four-masted ship sailing straight toward them out of
+the mists.
+
+And he was man enough to think of the woman he loved, and to forget the
+pensive appealing child in the shadowy room. He had a vision of Diana
+up there in the forest--strong of spirit, wresting from life, even in
+her exile, the things which were worth while.
+
+As they ate their lunch the little captain confided to Anthony the hope
+of his heart. "I'm going to ask Letty Matthews to marry me--I want to
+get her away from that school----"
+
+"Good. I'll dance at your wedding."
+
+"When am I to dance at yours?" the captain demanded, bluntly. "I should
+think it was about time that you were putting your furniture in that big
+house for Diana Gregory."
+
+"Some of the furniture is in." Anthony slurred over the greater question
+by tactfully emphasizing the lesser. "I had my mother's piano sent over
+yesterday, and some of the things for the living-room and library. We
+haven't a place for them at Harbor Light--and then there's the china. I
+wish I could match up some of those pieces of White Canton, captain. I
+wonder if we could make an exchange. I've a lot of Crown Medallion which
+would fill out your set----"
+
+Having thus started the little captain on his chief hobby, Anthony
+breathed a sigh of relief, and went on with his fishing.
+
+The subject of the china sufficed to fill the captain's mind until the
+fish stopped biting, and they decided to go in.
+
+It was just as they began their trip toward the harbor that Justin came
+back.
+
+The wind was blowing now straight from the south, and the "Gray Gull"
+was making slow headway against it.
+
+"Why don't he come down to the water? It's safer," said the little
+captain, anxiously. "There's every sign of a squall----"
+
+But Justin kept on; between him and the harbor was the Neck, with its
+jagged shore line of rocks. He was evidently planning to cross the strip
+of land obliquely, as, in rounding the point to come up the harbor, he
+must get the full force of the wind--
+
+As he sailed over them they caught the strong beat of his motor. It
+seemed, too, that he waved his hand; then he left them behind, keeping
+close to shore and above that jagged line of rocks.
+
+"Oh, the fool," the captain murmured. "Why don't he get away from the
+land?"
+
+The wind came with a mighty sweep; the air-ship gave a backward tilt,
+fluttered for a moment like a bird in a storm--then shot down with
+sickening swiftness!
+
+"His motor has stopped," the captain shouted, "and he's lost control! If
+he strikes the rocks he's done for!"
+
+Down--down! They had one glimpse of Justin struggling to free himself;
+they saw him jump clear, and the big machine crashed on the beach.
+
+It was the little captain who forced his boat to record speed, but it
+was Anthony who went over the side and through the breakers to where
+Justin lay prostrate, half in and half out of the water.
+
+Wet and dripping the doctor bent over the boy, put his hand to his heart
+and felt it beating faintly, then looked at the broken body and said,
+unsteadily:
+
+"There's only a slim chance of saving him. We must get him to Harbor
+Light."
+
+The accident had been seen from the harbor, and as the captain's boat
+shot around the Point with its precious burden, it met other boats
+coming out to meet it, and orders were shouted back and forth, so that
+when the rescuers reached the pier, there was a car ready for that which
+had gone out full of life and strength and which had come back beaten
+and bruised.
+
+The girls on the porch of the big hotel cried in each other's arms,
+hysterically, as the car passed, and talked of the way the young
+aviator had looked in the morning.
+
+But far up in a tall old house, crowned by a cupola, was a girl who did
+not cry. She had seen the "Gray Gull" come down and had guessed at the
+catastrophe. She had fainted away quietly, and lay now on the floor by
+the window with all of her fair hair shaken over her still white face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BROKEN WINGS
+
+
+It was Sophie who found Bettina. She came in quietly, wondering at the
+silence, then growing suddenly afraid she passed swiftly to the inner
+room to discover Miss Matthews still asleep and Bettina in a huddled
+heap on the floor.
+
+She picked the girl up in her strong arms, and carried her back to the
+big room and brought water and bathed her face, murmuring anxiously, "My
+dear, what is it? What has happened?"
+
+And, after a little while, Bettina whispered, "Justin," and then, a
+little louder, "Justin," and coming to the surface through the darkness
+for a third time, she clutched Sophie's arm, and cried, "Oh, is he
+killed? Is Justin killed?"
+
+Holding the shuddering little creature close, Sophie protested: "My
+dear, what is it? What have you dreamed?"
+
+"I didn't dream. Oh, Sophie, I didn't dream. I saw him up in the air,
+and I saw him--fall----"
+
+So it had come. So it came to all men who flew. Every bit of blood was
+drained from Sophie's face. But, fighting for composure, she held out
+such hope as she could. "My dear, are you sure? How did you know?"
+
+"I was standing by the window when he--came down----"
+
+"But there may have been some one to help him--and he was over the
+water--and he can--swim----"
+
+Footsteps were ascending the stairs lightly but hurriedly. The two women
+turned their white faces to the door. Captain Stubbs stood on the
+threshold.
+
+"He's hurt," he said. "Justin's hurt. He's at Harbor Light--and he's
+asked for Betty--and Anthony says that she must come."
+
+In a big room that overlooked the sea lay the bird man with broken
+wings. After that first murmured plea for "Betty" he had showed no sign
+of returning consciousness.
+
+On the floor above him they were getting ready for the operation. Nurses
+and doctors, in ghostly white, had set themselves to various preparatory
+tasks. And presently everything was in readiness for the great Dr.
+Anthony.
+
+He was delayed by a white-faced slip of a thing, whom he led at once
+into his private office, leaving Captain Stubbs outside as a proud and
+patient sentinel.
+
+When he had closed the door, Anthony took the little cold hands in his.
+"He is going to get well, Betty, if my skill can make him. I've got to
+operate at once--and there's a big chance--the other way----" He
+hesitated, then said, gently, "You love him, child?"
+
+"Yes--oh, yes."
+
+"And he loves you--how blind I've been! How much trouble might have been
+saved if I had known."
+
+There was no bitterness in his voice, only a great regret.
+
+"And now," he went on, "I'm going to save him for you, if I can. And
+I've sent a nurse to take care of Letty Matthews so that you can have
+Sophie with you."
+
+He had thought of everything. It came to Bettina then what he meant to
+the world--this great Dr. Anthony--she had hated his mission of
+healing--and the skill which might now mean to her a lifetime of
+happiness instead of unutterable woe.
+
+She tried, faltering, to tell him something of what she was feeling.
+
+"Hush, dear child. You could not know. And now you must be very brave,
+and pray your little white prayers for Justin, and, please God, we shall
+bring him through."
+
+Then he had gone away and Sophie had come, and the dreadful time of
+waiting had begun.
+
+Sophie, who had walked in the Valley of the Shadow with her own beloved,
+knew the right things to say to the child who clung to her.
+
+"Dearest, think of all you will mean to him when he gets well. Why,
+there's never an opportunity for a woman like that of having the man she
+loves dependent upon her--you can do all of the lovely little things for
+him."
+
+"But if he should not--get well?"
+
+"You are not to think of that."
+
+"I must think of it."
+
+"Hush, dear, _don't_. You can't help him or yourself by crying--I know
+how you feel--but think of this. If you should lose him, you will still
+have known love at its best. And you will never be content with a lesser
+thing. Oh, Betty, child, it is the shallow people who ask, 'Is it better
+to have loved and lost than never to have loved?' How _can_ there be
+any doubt? The woman who has not loved is only a half creature."
+
+"I know. Oh, Sophie, it seems such an awful thing to say, but if this
+hadn't happened I should never have been sure that for me there could
+never be any one else but Justin."
+
+Tactfully, the older woman led her on to talk of her doubts and fears,
+and of her terror lest she might deal with love lightly, as her father
+had done. And then Sophie spoke reverently of her own perfect marriage.
+
+"It was during his illness," she said, "that I learned to know my
+husband. I think I had always been a bit selfish. He had seemed so
+strong that I had heaped my burdens upon him. He wanted me to be happy,
+so he withheld all cares from me. But the time came when he knew it was
+not right to withhold such cares. He knew that I was to face separation
+and loneliness, and so he helped me to get ready. Oh, Betty, dear, I
+can't tell you how wonderful he was. He knew that death must come to
+him, and yet he never whimpered. He was a brave soldier going down to
+battle, and not once did he flinch. But gradually he came to lean on me;
+once he cried in my arms--not from fear, but because he must leave me.
+These things are not easy to speak of--but where at first I had merely
+loved, I came to worship. I saw how he had shielded me, and when he left
+me I had the precious memory not only of his care for me--but of my care
+for him--and his appreciation of it."
+
+There was a silence in which not only the "white prayers" of Bettina
+ascended, but the fervent ones of the woman who had suffered and lost.
+
+Then came a nurse with the message, "Dr. Blake wishes me to say that all
+conditions are favorable," and they permitted themselves to hope.
+
+Other people were coming now to Harbor Light--great men from the yachts,
+people from the big hotels, fellow-aviators of Justin's--the townsfolk
+and sailors--children who had worshiped the flying man of the smiling
+countenance.
+
+But no one was shown into the inner office except Bobbie and Doris and
+Sara.
+
+It was in that first moment of her meeting with Bettina that Sara
+blotted out the last vestige of smallness and of jealousy.
+
+She went straight up to the girl whom Justin loved, and put her arms
+about her. "Oh, you poor dear thing," and they wept together.
+
+Then Bettina asked, "How did you know?"
+
+"Everybody knows," Sara said, hysterically. "Did you think you could
+hide it?"
+
+Doris was weeping, too, in Bobbie's arms, and Bobbie's white, set face
+showed what he was feeling for his friend. "Oh, what made him go out on
+such a day--of all the crazy things----"
+
+"I told him not to," said Captain Stubbs, who had kept hitherto in the
+background, "but there's no fool like a young fool, and I said it at the
+time. But it was God's own providence that we were there when he fell.
+And if any one can fix him up it's Anthony."
+
+Bettina heard, and thought of her former fear of this place, which
+seemed now a sacred house of healing. Was she the same girl who had
+railed so bitterly against Anthony's profession? She felt that she
+wanted to tell him how great he was. Why, he was a wonderful man--and he
+was going to save Justin as he had saved others. Daily he fought battles
+with death and conquered. He must conquer now!
+
+Up-stairs in the operating room was being played a game of skill which
+had for its pawns human life and human reason.
+
+The worst trouble lay in the wounds about the head. But there were other
+dreadful complications, and many times in the hours that followed it
+seemed that the game was lost.
+
+All through the tiresome ordeal not once did a muscle of the great
+surgeon quiver. Not once did he show dismay at that which was most
+baffling; not once did he show weakness at that which was most pitiful.
+
+But when at last his great task was ended, his face was worn and gray.
+
+Yet as he went to change his clothes, through the fabric of his
+weariness and of his anxiety ran a thread of joy in the thought that the
+barriers were down between himself and Diana, and that he might love her
+now without reproach.
+
+When at last he descended to his little office, he spoke hopefully. "His
+strength and youth are in his favor--and I'm going to pull him through."
+
+Yet he knew in his heart that he was flinging a defiance at destiny.
+
+He arranged to keep Bettina at Harbor Light.
+
+"Justin might ask for you again," was his explanation.
+
+So Bobbie and Doris and Sara and Sophie went away together, and when
+there was no one else to hear, Anthony said to Bettina, gently, "My
+dear, why didn't you tell me?"
+
+Curled up in a big leather chair, she spoke of her fear of hurting him,
+of being inconstant--like her father.
+
+She seemed such a child in her blue serge suit with its red silk tie,
+and with the shady hat which had been pinned on hastily when the summons
+came. But the things she was saying were womanly things, and for the
+first time since he had known her Anthony perceived the possibilities of
+which Diana had been so sure--this little Betty child, transformed by
+love, would one day be an inspiration and a help to the man she would
+marry.
+
+"If I have hurt you," she said, as she finished, "I--I can only ask you
+to forgive me. If this had not happened, I think I should have--kept my
+promise. But now you know--and you will not want me to keep it."
+
+"No. I do not want you to keep it. Oh, what a tragedy we have made of it
+all. I might have made it so easy for you."
+
+"You, Anthony?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He sat silent for a moment, his fingers tapping the arm of his chair,
+those strong flexible fingers which an hour ago had done such magical
+feats of surgery. Bettina's eyes were held by them.
+
+"I hardly know how to begin; it has to do with--Diana."
+
+"Diana?"
+
+"I love her, dear----"
+
+"Diana?" Bettina spoke, breathlessly. "Oh, and does she love
+you--Anthony?"
+
+"I have always loved her--but I thought I had lost her--then when she
+came back from Europe I found that she was still free--and that--she
+cared. But by that time I had engaged myself to a dear child who really
+didn't love me at all."
+
+"But why didn't you tell me, Anthony?"
+
+"Because, my dear, I thought you might be made unhappy."
+
+To others there might have seemed something humorous in the
+situation--in its almost farcical complications and misunderstandings.
+But these two saw none; the issues were too deep, too serious; death was
+too near in that upper room.
+
+"Was that why--she went away----?" Bettina whispered.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, write and tell her to come back."
+
+"I have written. I wrote yesterday. I saw that you were not happy. I
+felt that I had no right to permit you to marry me when my heart was
+bound up in another woman--as it was bound up in her. I felt that in
+marriage there is something which goes beyond conventional honor. As a
+physician I have seen much of unhappiness--and I could not sanction in
+myself that which I would not have sanctioned in another. So I told
+Diana. I think instinct warned me there was some one else, after your
+flight with Justin."
+
+"And now--if he gets--well."
+
+Anthony stood up. "He shall get well," he said, steadily. "I scarcely
+dare think of the things which are coming to you and to me, dear child.
+But when I think of them my heart says, 'Thank God.'"
+
+If she wept now in his arms, it was as a daughter might weep in the arms
+of a father--there was love between them at last, but it was the love of
+tried friendship, of passionate gratitude on her part, of protective
+affection on his.
+
+When he had quite soothed her, she drew off the sparkling rings. "These
+must go back to you," she said; "some day you must give them to Diana."
+
+He shook his head. "I shall give her pearls. She belongs to the sea,
+Bettina; she's the wife for a man of sailor instincts like myself--we
+love the harbor, and the great lights that are high above it, and the
+little lights that are low--and so I shall give her pearls.
+
+"But you must keep these," he went on; "not to wear on your third
+finger--Justin, please God, shall some day look after that--but to wear
+on your right hand, as my gift to you--for luck and a long and happy
+life."
+
+In the evening they rode over to see Miss Matthews, and found her
+sitting up. "I feel better," she said, "and there's something in the
+air. I want to know why I have a nurse, and why Bettina went away while
+I was asleep?"
+
+"And I want to know," said Anthony, sternly, "why you are out of bed?"
+
+"Because I am better," said Letty Matthews, "there's nothing in this
+world that can cure a person like curiosity--and I had to know what was
+going on."
+
+So Anthony told her, and she wept to think of the fate of the bird man
+with the broken wings.
+
+But she was cheered by the coming of Captain Stubbs. He bore on a tray
+such a supply of delicious viands that Miss Matthews urged that Bettina
+and Anthony should stay and have supper.
+
+Bettina could not eat.
+
+"Please, I'm not hungry," she said, and went down the winding stairway,
+and when she came back her arms were full of roses.
+
+"Will you let him have them in his room?" she asked Anthony.
+
+"He shall see them first when he opens his eyes," Anthony promised;
+"they shall carry all of your messages to him."
+
+In the hushed room at Harbor Light there was darkness--and there was the
+fragrance of many flowers.
+
+Out of the darkness a faint voice wavered, "Lilacs?"
+
+The nurse bent over the high hospital bed. "Roses--lovely ones."
+
+A long silence. Then, "Lovely ladies?" said the faint voice.
+
+He could see them with his eyes shut--a whole procession of pretty
+ladies, all floating in the dimness. Just their faces on a broad band of
+light, over which the gray mists rolled now and then and blurred the
+outlines. Then the faces would again shine out, smiling--gay and sad,
+pensive and glad.
+
+"Lovely ladies," he said again.
+
+They followed him into his dreams, and kept him company until the pain
+began--that racking, wrenching pain; then they flew from him and left
+him alone to suffer.
+
+After a long time, when the nurse had bared his shoulder and had pricked
+it with something that felt like a pin, they came back--all those lovely
+faces; only now they seemed to peep from behind clouds of smoke, heavier
+than the mists, and more tantalizing in their concealments.
+
+So they came and went through the long night, leaving when the pain
+racked him, returning always when the nurse did things to his shoulder
+with her little shining instrument.
+
+They fled from him, too, when he opened his eyes and saw hazily that
+there was a light, and a great many flowers, and that Anthony was
+standing in a sort of bower of them.
+
+And Anthony was saying to some unseen person who stood at the head of
+the bed, "Did he notice the flowers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good--you can take them out now--nurse."
+
+He had tried to tell Anthony about the pretty ladies. But they had come
+back and were whirling about him on that band of light--and there was
+one with dark hair with a crescent moon above the parting--and there was
+one who came closer than the others, and who had hair that shone like
+gold, and a little white face.
+
+"Betty----"
+
+The nurse did not catch the name--but Anthony's quick ear was at once
+attentive.
+
+"She loves you, dear boy; and I'm going to make you well, so you may
+marry her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE ENCHANTED FOREST
+
+
+Far up in the hills the Beautiful Lady went daily to the post-office for
+her mail.
+
+It was a long walk, and the path skirted the edge of the forest. Leaving
+the path one entered upon a world of dim green light, a world of soft
+whispering sounds, a world of enchantment; and it was into this world
+that Diana's feet strayed as she came and went. It was here she spent
+most of her mornings; it was here she found the solitude she craved.
+
+The guests at the mountain house called the Beautiful Lady exclusive;
+but it was an exclusiveness which matched her air of remoteness, and
+since such friendships as she encouraged were with those who were lonely
+and tired and sick, she made no enemies by her withdrawal from the
+conventional life of the place.
+
+The lazy folk on the porch who were content to wait for the mail bag
+which came at noon by carrier always watched with curiosity the
+departure and return of the stately woman who was said to be wealthy
+and of great social eminence. She went alone and came back just in time
+for lunch, having loitered on the way to read her letters.
+
+The letters, however, were not always satisfying. They brought such
+meager news of that which lay so near her heart! Sophie kept
+persistently away from topics which might be disturbing; Bettina's
+girlish epistles really told nothing--and Anthony wrote not at all.
+
+Yet such scraps as she could glean formed the excitement of Diana's day,
+and always she had a vague and formless hope--a hope for which she
+reproached herself. Always she hoped for a letter from Anthony.
+
+She knew that he ought not to write. She knew that if he did write she
+would not answer--but the longing of her heart would not be stilled.
+
+As far as possible she forced her mind to thoughts of the future, and it
+was thus she had evolved the plan which she had written to Sophie. It
+was the only way in which her life could be linked with Anthony's; they
+would thus share in a work which might continue in interest to the end
+of their days.
+
+There were times, however, when all of her optimism, all of her
+philosophy failed, and when her whole nature cried out for reality--not
+for dreams.
+
+It was on one of these days of depression that she left behind her the
+hotel piazza with its chattering crowd, and drifted somewhat languidly
+across the lawn, past the tennis courts, and out into the mountain path.
+
+In her modish frock of gray linen, with a parasol of leaf green, she
+seemed to merge gradually into the grayness and greenness of the forest
+beyond. She might have been a dryad returning to her tree, or as an
+artist in the group on the porch remarked, "a nymph in a Corot setting."
+
+How still it was in the forest! Even the birds seemed to respect the
+silences, and slipped from branch to branch like shadows. The squirrels,
+flattened heads downward against gray tree trunks, whisked up and out of
+sight as the intruder advanced. A strayed butterfly went by in a
+wavering flight, seeking the sunshine and the flowers of the open
+fields.
+
+Diana loved the forest, but more than all she loved the sea. She missed
+the wild music of the waves and wind. The hills seemed to shut her in;
+she wanted the wide spaces, the limitless expanse of blue--she wanted
+the harbor with its many lights.
+
+Yet if Anthony married Betty it would be years before she would dare go
+back. His work was there, and he must stay; she would be exiled from the
+place she loved.
+
+Her steps quickened as if she would fly from the thought. She passed
+again beyond the edge of the arching trees, and came upon a winding
+road. Its last curve brought her to a little settlement of which the
+store, which was also the post-office, was the most imposing building.
+
+The postmistress knew her and had the package ready. "Lots of letters,
+two papers and a half dozen magazines," she said, cheerily. "I don't see
+how you find time to read so many."
+
+"I have nothing to do but read. I am not a lucky busy person like
+yourself." Diana was smiling as she turned up the corners of each letter
+to glance at the one beneath.
+
+On top was Sophie's daily budget, black-edged and bulky. Bettina's
+showed a faddish slender monogram. Following was Justin's--she knew that
+boyish scrawl; a business letter or two, a bill, an advertisement, and
+then--her heart leaped. On the flap of a great square envelope blazed
+the seal which Anthony had chosen for his house of healing--a lighthouse
+flashing its beacon over stormy waters.
+
+The little postmistress wondered at the radiance which illumined the
+face of the lovely lady. Diana, in saying a hurried farewell, sparkled
+like a girl.
+
+"You've given me such wonderful letters this morning," she said,
+breathlessly. "I must run away and read them."
+
+And she did run, literally, when she had passed beyond the limits of the
+village. Holding up her narrow skirt, her parasol under her arm, her
+precious burden of mail hugged tightly, she left the path, and again
+entered upon the enchanted forest.
+
+She knew of a place where she would read Anthony's letter, a warm little
+hollow, with a still silver pool beyond, a pool which, with its
+upstanding reeds and rushes, was merged at its farthest edge into a
+blurred purple background.
+
+Safe at last in her retreat she opened Anthony's letter, forgetting the
+others in her eagerness, seeing only the firm, simple script which
+crowded a dozen pages.
+
+He began quietly, but evidently, as he wrote, Anthony had been swayed by
+emotions which had mastered him, and he had written with fire and
+intensity, and, as she read, her heart responded tremulously:
+
+
+  "DEAR DIANA:
+
+  "Sophie has told me of your plan--your wonderful plan which has to do
+  with my work and with me, and which shall link our futures in an
+  interest which shall be above reproach.
+
+  "It was like you to think of it, and I shall not try to thank you.
+  Indeed you will not want my thanks. You and I are beyond conventional
+  concealments, and you know, as I know, that the thing which you are
+  doing is for your own happiness as well as for mine, and I am glad
+  that it is so, because your happiness is the thing which I most
+  desire.
+
+  "I have not wanted to think of you up there in the hills. You belong
+  to the sea, dear girl, and I know you are missing it, as we are
+  missing you. I know, too, that, as you read this, you will say: 'He is
+  overstepping bounds. He must not write these things to me.' But I am
+  going to write them, Diana, for the time has come when we must face
+  the big truths, and let the half-truths go.
+
+  "The big truth is this--that you and I love each other. The half-truth
+  is--that Bettina loves me, and that I must not break her heart.
+
+  "I am troubled about Bettina. Certainly the child is not happy. All of
+  her brightness has left her. She is pale and thin, and I am too wise a
+  physician of bodies not to know something, too, of hearts. You may say
+  that my attitude has affected her; that she had felt instinctively the
+  difference in me. But it is not that. I am sure it is not that. When
+  I asked her to-night if there was anything between us, she faltered
+  that she had something to tell me that she would write.
+
+  "Perhaps I should wait until her letter comes, but I cannot wait. You
+  are so vividly with me at this moment, Diana, that I can almost hear
+  your voice calling above the noise of the wind and waves. I can see
+  you as I like you best--all in white. I can feel your presence as I
+  felt it that night in the empty house as you stood on the threshold of
+  that moonlighted room.
+
+  "Oh, dear girl, come back to me. I must have you in my life. Otherwise
+  it will be a thwarted life--and a lonely one. For whether you marry me
+  or not, I will not marry Betty. I do not love her, and she shall not
+  spend her days as the unloved wife of one whose thoughts are all with
+  a wonder-woman up in the hills.
+
+  "Can't you see it as I do? We must not so profane marriage, Betty and
+  I. There is no idea of honor so false as that which holds a man or a
+  woman to a promise which has ceased to have a vital and a vivid
+  meaning.
+
+  "No man has a right to plan for a home unless Love is to be the
+  corner-stone. These things are sacred, and not to be spoken of except
+  to those who understand. But my love for you and your love for me
+  would form a barrier against all the sweet and tender meanings for
+  Betty of wifehood and motherhood.
+
+  "That's the plain truth of it. I'm a blunt man, and I've said it as it
+  has come to me after days of pondering.
+
+  "I am not saying these things that I may marry you. I am saying them
+  because they are true. Surely we can find a way to make Bettina happy.
+  Her youth and loveliness must always win love. The hearts of the boys
+  at the club are all under her little feet, and Justin--oh, if I only
+  dared hope that she could care for Justin----
+
+  "But marry her I will not, even if I go alone through life.
+
+  "For me you are the One Woman, Diana. In these days of separation from
+  you I have thought of many things, but of none more than this: that we
+  men, having loved one woman, deceive ourselves, when we lose her, with
+  the thought that another like her may be found--but she is never
+  found, and so we go through life half-men, unsatisfied, with hungry
+  hearts.
+
+  "There's a big storm coming. I wish you might go down to the beach and
+  walk with me in the wind. How often we have walked together in beating
+  storms, Diana, and have gloried in them--so we would face the storms
+  of life together; so I cannot face them with any other--or alone.
+
+  "Oh, girl, come back to me. I need you. I must have you. I _will_ have
+  you. You are mine.
+
+  "ANTHONY."
+
+The letter dropped from her fingers. She hid her face in her hands. His
+call echoed thunderingly in her ears. But she must not listen; she must
+not.
+
+She yielded for the moment, however, to the sweetness of his insistent
+demand. Curled up in the warm little hollow she dreamed of the things
+which might be--putting off, as long as possible, the moment of
+decision.
+
+The other letters lay unheeded at her feet. All friendship seemed futile
+at such a time. What could Sophie, or Bettina or Justin say which could
+match those burning words of her lover?
+
+[Illustration: THE OTHER LETTERS LAY UNHEEDED]
+
+The sun, rising higher, filtered through the branches and fell like
+golden rain upon the surface of the pool--the purple shadows gave way to
+emerald vistas; a trail of honey-bees traveled unerringly toward a
+hidden honey store. It was high noon in the forest!
+
+Diana, waking to the fact that the hours had flown, gathered up her
+other letters, and opened the one on top of the pile. It was Justin's.
+What could he have to say to her, this boy who lived his life so
+lightly?
+
+But when she had read the scrawled words she sat staring at them, hardly
+believing the things which had been written.
+
+
+  "DEAR LADY:
+
+  "Betty Dolce told me last night of her engagement to Anthony. But it
+  was too late. You see it has come to this: that there isn't any one
+  in the world for me but Betty--she's so little and young and sweet,
+  and she has waked up the man in me, and that's what no other girl has
+  ever done.
+
+  "But she won't break her promise, and last night I left her crying,
+  and I can't stand the thought of it. I just can't stand it. When it
+  was only I who suffered, I could get along, but now--why, it's Betty's
+  happiness against all the rest.
+
+  "Am I doing a dishonorable thing, Diana, when I ask her to tell
+  Anthony the truth?
+
+  "You shall decide for us. I cannot think clearly; I love her too much.
+
+  "JUSTIN."
+
+What had inspired Justin to write to her like that? Did Betty know? Did
+Sophie? She went to the reading of the other letters eagerly, and when
+at last they lay before her, and the whole pitiful little story was
+revealed, the tears were running down her cheeks. Oh, the unhappiness of
+the dear young hearts--and the happiness which was to come!
+
+Those who had assembled on the porch of the hotel in the before-luncheon
+hour were struck by something unusual in the bearing of the Beautiful
+Lady as she came toward them. All the listlessness of the morning had
+gone. Her head was up and she walked swiftly, lightly.
+
+"She makes me think of the 'Winged Victory,'" was the comment of the
+observant artist. "She gives the same impression of triumphant motion."
+
+At other times Diana had rather resented the inspection of the people on
+the porch. But to-day all of the faces looked friendly--she felt that
+she would like to say to them all, "I am going home to be happy." But
+what she really did was to bow somewhat shyly, and to go on with flaming
+cheeks.
+
+The artist looked after her. "I wonder if she knows that she belongs to
+the goddess type of the Golden Age," he said, and sighed.
+
+It was just at dusk that Diana stepped once more within the borders of
+the enchanted forest, and sought the warm little hollow beside the pool.
+In her filmy gown of midnight blue she moved like a shadow among deeper
+shadows--her neck and shoulders gleaming white.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About her were all the eerie noises of the dark, the little, little
+sounds of little, little things.
+
+"Good-bye," Diana whispered, "good-bye--dear forest."
+
+The sounds seemed to swell triumphantly into a love song--the weird and
+wonderful song of the night. From bush and branch call answered call,
+mate invited mate; all the wild things of the wood were voicing their
+need, each of the other.
+
+So the Beautiful Lady left behind her the sheltered hollow in the wood,
+and turned her face toward the sea with its beating storms, and she
+turned with gladness.
+
+It was late the next afternoon when she came at last to her home on the
+harbor.
+
+Sophie, warned by a telegram, was waiting for her.
+
+"Oh, dearest dear," she said, as they embraced each other in the garden,
+"you beauty! Why, Diana, you don't look a day over twenty."
+
+"I'm so happy, Sophie. Happy women are always young. Oh, I've so much to
+tell you. Your letter came with all the other letters. How silly we have
+been! That's the way with half the troubles in life. How easy it would
+be to be happy if only we could look into the minds of other people."
+
+Peter Pan, hearing Diana's voice, came to them, tumultuously, leaping
+above the nasturtium borders and the brilliant flower beds.
+
+Diana picked him up. "Think of it, Peter," she said, in her thrilling
+voice; "you're going to live up the road with me for all the rest of
+your life--in Anthony's house, and I am going to live there, too."
+
+Sophie gasped. "Oh, has it come to that?"
+
+"It has come to everything that means happiness," Diana answered. "Let's
+go up-stairs, Sophie, where we can talk."
+
+As they entered the house Delia came to meet them. Her face lacked its
+usual beaming welcome. "Oh, my dear," she said, "I'm glad to see you so
+much better, but it is a sad errand which has brought you."
+
+"Sad--what do you mean, Delia?"
+
+The two women exchanged glances, and Sophie faltered, "Didn't you get my
+telegram, Diana?"
+
+"Telegram--no, I've heard nothing."
+
+"It's Justin. He's dreadfully hurt. His air-ship fell, and Anthony has
+him at Harbor Light."
+
+She sketched the details. "Betty is there. Anthony won't let any one see
+him. But he thinks Betty should be within call."
+
+"Oh, Sophie, is it as bad as that----?"
+
+"It is about as bad as it can be, Diana."
+
+When they had talked it over, it was decided that Diana should call up
+Anthony and ask to see Betty at Harbor Light; when she had given the
+telephone number she found herself shivering with expectation. In a
+moment she would hear his voice!
+
+She was told, however, that Dr. Blake was out on an important case; that
+he would not be back until late.
+
+"Perhaps I'd better wait until he returns before I make any plans,"
+Diana told Sophie, and then Sara came in--a subdued Sara, with much of
+her sharpness modified, and they had dinner together, and were served by
+the adoring Delia.
+
+After dinner Diana grew restless, and, wandering alone in the garden,
+found her feet straying in the direction of Anthony's house on the
+rocks.
+
+Peter Pan followed her, and waited for her when she went in, having
+learned caution from his last imprisonment.
+
+Diana knew where the key was kept, and felt for it behind a cornice. She
+let herself in and shut the door behind her. The lights from the street
+lamps showed that some pieces of furniture had been placed since her
+last visit. There were rugs beneath her feet. On the table in the hall
+was the end of a candle in a quaint silver holder, and a cup contained
+matches.
+
+She lighted the candle, and made a tour of the lower floor. In the
+living-room she set two big chairs side by side on the hearth and
+laughed a little, fancying her head and Anthony's close together. In the
+dining-room were treasures of china--the White Canton in unchipped
+dozens. She set two places on the polished table, and drank Anthony's
+health in a mystical cup of tea.
+
+She ascended the stairs. There were massive beds and massive highboys
+and lowboys and tables and chairs everywhere, but in the room to which
+she had brought the lilacs there was nothing but a little old-fashioned
+piano, and the gray pottery bowl which had held her flowers. Evidently
+Anthony had changed his plans, and this place which he had dedicated to
+her was to be used simply as a sitting-room or music room for Bettina.
+
+The candle flared and went out. Diana sat down on the old-fashioned
+round stool in front of the little piano. Anthony's mother had played on
+that little piano. It had been his father's gift to his bride.
+
+With her hands resting on the keys she sat and looked out over her
+beloved harbor.
+
+There was a little silver moon--Diana's moon, the crescent of the
+huntress.
+
+Well, it was Diana's night! Her fingers struck softly the chords of the
+music she had created.
+
+[Illustration: Music score]
+
+On the other side of the street, a tired man, coming out of a house
+where a sick woman had needed his services, halted and held up his head.
+
+He crossed the road and entered the house.
+
+The rugs deadened the sound of his steps. He stopped on the threshold of
+that upper room. He could see the faint outlines of the tall white
+figure; he knew the voice, the song.
+
+"Diana, my dear girl!"
+
+She turned and stood up.
+
+"Anthony--oh, Anthony, I have come back--to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE PROCESSION OF PRETTY LADIES
+
+
+For days the procession of pretty ladies kept Justin company. Then they
+floated away on the rolling mists, and he found real faces bending over
+him,--the nurse's with its fresh comeliness, and Anthony's with a light
+on it which transfigured it.
+
+One morning when he waked a white rose lay on his pillow.
+
+"Did you put it there, nurse?"
+
+"No. Miss Dolce came."
+
+On Anthony's next visit Justin asked: "Why didn't you let me see her?"
+
+"She sees you every day. Just a peep in at your door. But always when
+you are asleep."
+
+"But why not when I am awake?"
+
+"It would tire you too much, dear boy."
+
+"Only let me look at her."
+
+So at last Bettina stood beside him, very pale, but with her eyes
+shining.
+
+Justin could not lift his hurt hands to touch her, so she bent down and
+laid her cheek against his, and whispered, "When you are well, we are
+going to be--married."
+
+"I know--sweetheart."
+
+"And--may I have the little silver ring for my wedding ring, Justin?"
+
+"Yes, sweetheart."
+
+She was not white now, but all rosy with blushes. As she again bent over
+him he felt the thrilling power of her youth and beauty. Her presence
+was like wine, reviving him. Her words were a loving cup held to his
+lips.
+
+"Oh, my Betty, help me to live," he whispered, weakly.
+
+"Hush; oh, my poor, poor boy."
+
+In the weeks that followed it seemed as if only love were holding Justin
+back from death. There were days when Bettina was not allowed to see
+him; there were other days when Anthony dared not tell her the fears
+which assailed him, when he avoided all of her questions, confiding only
+in Diana.
+
+"There's an awful chance that he will never walk."
+
+Diana, very pale, asked, "Is it his spine?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he was so strong and beautiful."
+
+"He will never fly again, Diana."
+
+"Oh, poor Justin!"
+
+"And poor Betty. I wonder if, when all the first glamour is gone, she
+will be able to stand the test."
+
+"I am sure she will. She has been so brave."
+
+"If I know Justin, he won't let her marry him when he learns the truth."
+
+"Oh, Anthony!"
+
+"I haven't given up hope, however. His wonderful vitality and perfect
+health may bring about that which now seems impossible."
+
+Bettina, since she could not minister to Justin, spent the days in
+ministering to others. In the great workshop where men and women of
+wealth wove rugs and made pottery as if their bread and butter depended
+upon it, she became a familiar figure. The patients loved to have her
+there, and she went from one to the other, a charming little helper in
+her white frock, with her air of girlish grace.
+
+In those days her beauty assumed a new aspect. All the petulance was
+gone from her expression--the restlessness from her manner.
+
+"How lovely she is!" said nurses and patients and doctors, and they
+spoke not of her physical beauty, but of her loveliness of mind and of
+soul.
+
+Whenever she was allowed to see Justin she came to him with hope in her
+shining glance. And one day Anthony let her take the nurse's place, so
+that for the first time they were alone.
+
+It was then that Justin told her of the Procession of Pretty Ladies.
+"Anthony says it was the morphine," he said, "but whatever it was, they
+kept me company for days."
+
+Betty laughed. "You'll soon have a real procession of pretty ladies.
+Diana wants to come, and Sophie and Sara and Doris. But Anthony insists
+that they must wait until you can sit up."
+
+"When will that be?"
+
+"Soon."
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Don't ask so many questions. As soon as it is good for you, you
+impatient boy."
+
+"I _am_ impatient. I want to be up and out. I want to fly again over the
+harbor. Betty, all the lovely days are going, and I am lying here like a
+log."
+
+Her heart seemed to stand still. She knew that he would never fly again.
+Anthony had told her that he might prepare her in part for the truth.
+But Justin must not know.
+
+She spoke hurriedly. "I should hate to have you fly again--I should
+always be thinking of the time I saw you fall."
+
+"It's the only thing I can do well, Betty."
+
+"There are so many things that you can do--with me."
+
+He smiled. "What could I do--with you?"
+
+"You could build a little workroom in the top of our house--_our_ house,
+dear boy; and you could sit there and invent wonderful things to make
+other men safe who go up in the air, and I could watch you do it."
+
+"But why should I be shut up, dearest? I'm not made for that sort of
+thing. I'd rather be out--in the open."
+
+There was a note of alarm in his voice. Bettina tried to laugh
+naturally. "Because I'd rather have you with me, you venturesome
+youth--then I should know you were safe."
+
+"If anything could hold me down it would be you,--Betty."
+
+She was silent for a moment, then she said, with hesitation, "Justin,
+dear----"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I don't want to wait until you are well--to be married----"
+
+As he turned on her his puzzled glance the color flooded her face.
+"Perhaps it isn't usual for a woman to say--such a thing. Perhaps I
+shouldn't say it. But--I want to feel that I belong to you--I want to
+know that I have the right to be always at your side. I want to know
+that--where you go--I can go--Justin----"
+
+The bandages were still on his hands and arms, those hands which yearned
+to take her hands, those arms which ached to enfold her.
+
+But his eyes held a look which was a caress. "But it would not be fair
+to you, sweetheart,--to spend your honeymoon in nursing me."
+
+"It would be fair to me. Oh, Justin, Justin, it isn't just sweetheart
+love that I am giving you; it is wife love and mother love--I feel
+sometimes as if you were my hurt little boy, and that I'd give my life
+to help you----"
+
+She was not crying, but her voice held an emotion which was deeper than
+tears; her steadfast eyes met his; her little hands were laid lightly on
+the covers above his heart.
+
+And suddenly he saw her enthroned--a woman, not a child--a wife, not a
+playmate. Her youth and beauty were still there to charm him, but back
+of them was a quality which would hold him until the end--a divine
+quality of tenderness, of compassion, of eternal constancy.
+
+And, in response, he brought the best that manhood can bring to
+woman--reverence and that high regard which makes of marriage a
+spiritual bond.
+
+He tried to speak, but his voice failed. Then, as she bent above him,
+she heard his whisper:
+
+"Kiss me--my wife!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the days which followed the pretty ladies came in a charming
+procession--Diana and Sophie, little Sara, bravely wistful, Doris
+escorted by Bobbie. And last, but not least in importance, came Letty
+Matthews, in a new white dress and rose-wreathed hat, and with happiness
+glorifying her plain features.
+
+But though they came and went, all these good friends of his, and he
+smiled and greeted them, his eyes went always beyond them to the little
+white and gold creature with the woman-eyes. And his voice would call
+for her, and until she came he would not be content.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE AFTERGLOW
+
+
+Anthony vetoed absolutely the idea of a marriage before Justin's fate
+should be finally decided.
+
+"But if he knows," Bettina urged with trembling lips, "if he knows that
+he may be--crippled--he will say that I shall not marry him. You know
+that he would say that, Anthony."
+
+"And he would be right. A chronic invalid should not marry, Betty. I
+have great hope of his recovery. You and he must live on that hope a
+little longer."
+
+Bettina begged Diana to intercede, and that lovely lady, having claimed
+Anthony for a twilight walk on the beach, began her plea.
+
+But after the first words she found that she must deal not with the man
+who loved her, but with the great Dr. Anthony.
+
+"I shall certainly not allow it. I am not, of course, her legal
+guardian, and so I cannot prevent it in that way. But I can tell
+Justin."
+
+"But she will not be happy without him, Anthony. If it were you, I
+should marry you."
+
+"I should not let you."
+
+"You could not help it."
+
+They faced each other--this strong man and this strong woman. With their
+wills opposed, each seemed immovable. It was evident that only a great
+depth of affection could bring harmony between their dominant natures.
+
+Anthony, smiling at the earnestness of his beloved, did not yield an
+inch. "These things are not to be decided by sentiment, dear. There are
+meanings in marriage far beyond mere romance, far beyond the fate of the
+two individuals who make the contract. We doctors must uphold the ideal
+of physical perfection lest the race suffer. Moreover Bettina does not
+know, she cannot know, what life would mean under such conditions. She
+does not know her own strength, her own weakness. She must learn
+something of life before she takes its heaviest burdens upon her. If in
+the years to come she can sustain Justin by her friendship, let it be
+that. She must not marry him."
+
+"You--with your friendships, Anthony! Love cannot go back to
+friendship."
+
+She had seated herself on a stone bench which backed by a clump of
+pines, commanded a wide view of the sea. He hesitated, wondering how he
+might chase away the shadow which lay on her lovely face.
+
+"Dear heart, we must not disagree about a thing which may right itself.
+Tell Betty that, if she will be patient for a few weeks, I shall hope to
+withdraw my opposition."
+
+Her eyes did not meet his.
+
+"Are you thinking that I am cruel, Diana?"
+
+"No, oh, no. But your wisdom won't cure Betty's heartache."
+
+"It may save her future heartaches."
+
+"I wonder if a woman's point of view is ever a man's point of view,
+Anthony?"
+
+"Only when two people love each other very much, dear. Then each tries
+to look at life through the other's eyes. We men would grow brutal
+without you to curb us. But, on the other hand, you need, now and then,
+the masculine common-sense view-point."
+
+"I don't want the common-sense point of view in this, Anthony."
+
+He laid his hands on her shoulders and stood looking down at her.
+
+"Diana."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is it, dear?"
+
+"I don't quite like--being curbed, Anthony."
+
+She was laughing a little for, in spite of her rebellion, there was
+something stimulating in the thought of his masterfulness. "You see,
+I've always ruled," she said.
+
+"You shall still rule, everywhere, except in one little corner of my
+kingdom which has to do with things medical--over that I must still
+reign."
+
+"Of course if you think that you are right in this----"
+
+"I know that I am right. Look at me, Diana."
+
+Thrilled by his tone of command, she did look at him with eyes like
+stars.
+
+Then, knowing that he had conquered, he drew her up to him and said,
+gently, "We doctors have to seem cruel to be kind--but you must never
+believe me cruel, Diana."
+
+So July passed and August, and the little town took on all the beauty of
+its September coloring. The dahlias blazed from every fence corner.
+Against the gray rocks their masses of brilliance tempted the brushes of
+the artists who came to paint.
+
+The yachts began to leave the harbor, some of them going South, some of
+them making their exit to the clanking chorus of the marine railway. The
+yacht clubs sounded their last guns, packed away their pennants and
+hauled up their floating docks. The hotels were closed, and most of the
+mansions on the Neck were deserted. The summer folk were turning toward
+the city, and the little seaport town was settling down to its winter
+routine.
+
+It was on one of those quiet September days that Anthony said to
+Bettina, "Set your wedding day, my dear."
+
+"Oh, Anthony, may I, really?"
+
+"Yes. The specialists who came yesterday gave a final decision. Justin
+is going to get--well."
+
+The invalid, propped up in a big chair, was approached thus:
+
+"Would you mind if it were a big affair, Justin?"
+
+"Not if you want it that way, sweetheart."
+
+"I don't, if you don't. But Diana and the rest are planning----"
+
+He laughed. "I want the whole world to see you, and I want all the bells
+to ring, and I want to run away afterward with you, and to have our
+honeymoon last forever."
+
+So they were married from Diana's, at high noon, and as the bride
+descended the stairway, a sigh of admiration went up from the waiting
+guests. Her costume had been copied from an old painting, and emphasized
+her likeness to those medieval Venetian beauties whose blood ran in her
+veins. Her veil was caught back, cap-fashion, from her face, then fell
+to her feet. The silken thinness of her gown was weighted with silver
+embroideries.
+
+Slightly to the left of the officiating clergyman was a screen of white
+roses. As Bettina advanced, the screen was set aside, and showed Justin,
+in a big chair, pale and smiling, and seeing only his bride as she came
+toward him.
+
+Standing by her lover's side, Bettina gave the responses clearly. And
+when he placed on her finger the little silver ring, it was she who bent
+and kissed him.
+
+As soon as the ceremony was over, the bridegroom was whisked away, to be
+followed by the bride when she had cut the wedding cake.
+
+In the library at the head of the stairs she found him. He was on his
+feet, unsupported, and looking expectantly toward the door.
+
+She gave a little cry. "Justin, you must not----!"
+
+He laughed and held out his arms to her. "Anthony said I might. Just to
+show you. He didn't quite dare for the wedding. But I want you to know
+that you are not marrying--a broken reed--dearest."
+
+She looked up at him. "How good it seemed," she whispered, "to see your
+face above mine. I--I am just as high as your heart--Justin."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Snow over the harbor. Snow, too, at Harbor Light.
+
+Anthony's patients, warmly housed, were busy with Christmas work. Women
+who had always bought perfunctory Christmas presents, and to whom the
+holiday season had meant merely a weary round of shopping, bent eagerly
+over the bit of pottery or of weaving which was to carry a message of
+peace and good will. Men, whose gift-giving had lost all of its precious
+meanings, were carving quaint weather-vanes and toys with infinite
+pains, and reveling in their skill.
+
+Diana, moving from one to the other, encouraged and suggested.
+
+"I am so glad we worked out that mistletoe design for the pottery and
+the holly for the little white rugs," she said; "it makes the work so
+much more interesting."
+
+"It is you who makes the work interesting," said her adoring husband who
+was at her elbow. "Don't you ever wish for anything else? Wouldn't you
+like to be down South with Justin and Betty--with purple seas and
+cocoanut palms and tennis and golf and good times?"
+
+"I'd rather be here with you. Every time you come back from an important
+case or operation I feel as if you were a knight returning from
+battle--no woman can have that feeling when her husband isn't doing
+vital things--but I'll wait until I get home, Anthony, to tell you the
+rest of it--the whole of Harbor Light has its eyes on us."
+
+It was not curiosity which drew the eyes toward them. To these weary
+creatures, many of whom had lost their illusions, the romance of their
+beloved doctor had given new hope. Their belief in the happiness of
+another made their own chances of happiness seem less remote.
+
+It was late that night, however, before Diana could tell Anthony "the
+rest of it." He was delayed by a call to an outside case, and she sat up
+to wait for him.
+
+The snow had stopped, and as she stood at the window in her room
+looking out, Minot's flashed above the horizon, and the big light on the
+Point flamed against the darkness like a sun. The little twinkling fair
+weather lights of the summer were gone. Only these remained through the
+beating storms to send out their warnings to the ships.
+
+It was the great lights of the harbor which served humanity; it was
+great men like Anthony who served!
+
+Smiling a little, in the fulness of her content, she turned back into
+the fire-lighted room, and went to her piano.
+
+Anthony, coming up the stairs, spent and chilled, heard her singing:
+
+    "The stormy evening closes now in vain,
+     Loud wails the wind and beats the driving rain,
+           While here in sheltered house
+           With fiery-painted walls,
+     I hear the wind abroad,
+           I hark the calling squalls--
+    'Blow, blow,' I cry, 'you burst your cheeks in vain!
+     Blow, blow,' I cry, 'my love is home again!'"
+
+On the threshold of this blessed sanctuary all of his weariness seemed
+to vanish; here he found rest and refreshment--here, at last, he had
+found fulfillment of all his dreams.
+
+The End
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"_The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay_"
+
+_There Are Two Sides to Everything--_
+
+--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
+writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset &
+Dunlap book wrapper.
+
+You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for
+every mood and every taste and every pocket-book.
+
+_Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to
+the publishers for a complete catalog._
+
+_There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARGARET PEDLER'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE GUARDED HALO
+
+  The story of a girl and a man who threw away honor and reputation to
+  protect untarnished the memory of a friend.
+
+BITTER HERITAGE
+
+  She learned that her father, the man she had idolized, was a thief and
+  a swindler--a bitter heritage not to be escaped.
+
+YESTERDAY'S HARVEST
+
+  The harvest of an early love brings a strange situation and triumph of
+  sacrifice.
+
+TOMORROW'S TANGLE
+
+  The game of love is fraught with danger. To win in the finest sense it
+  must be played fairly.
+
+RED ASHES
+
+  A gripping story of a doctor who failed in a crucial operation and had
+  only himself to blame. Could the woman he loved forgive him.
+
+THE BARBARIAN LOVER
+
+  A love story based upon the creed that the only important things
+  between birth and death are the courage to face life and the love to
+  sweeten it.
+
+THE MOON OUT OF REACH
+
+  Nan Davenport's problem is one that many a girl has faced--her own
+  happiness or her father's bond.
+
+THE HOUSE OF DREAMS COME TRUE
+
+  How a man and a woman fulfilled a gypsy's prophecy.
+
+THE HERMIT OF FAR END
+
+  How love made its way into a walled-in house and a walled-in heart.
+
+THE LAMP OF FATE
+
+  The story of a woman who tried to take all and give nothing.
+
+THE SPLENDID FOLLY
+
+  Do you believe that husbands and wives should have no secrets from
+  each other?
+
+THE VISION OF DESIRE
+
+  It is easy to destroy illusions, difficult to restore them. Anne
+  restored love from the ashes of disillusion.
+
+WAVES OF DESTINY
+
+  Each of these stories has the sharp impact of an emotional crisis--the
+  compressed quality of one of Margaret Pedlar's widely read novels.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOVELS BY TEMPLE BAILEY
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+BURNING BEAUTY
+
+Beautiful Virginia Oliphant is loved by two men; one tempts her with
+millions, and the other tempts her with nothing more than his devotion.
+
+SILVER SLIPPERS
+
+Days of delight and disillusionment until Joan Dudley's knight actually
+came.
+
+WALLFLOWERS
+
+They were twins, they were "Wallflowers" perhaps--but they were
+beautiful, and young and real.
+
+THE BLUE WINDOW
+
+Hildegarde finds herself transplanted from the middle western farm to
+the gay social whirl of the East.
+
+PEACOCK FEATHERS
+
+Jerry, the idealist, loves Mimi, a beautiful spoiled society girl. A
+conflict of wealth and love.
+
+THE DIM LANTERN
+
+The romance of little Jane Barnes who is loved by two men.
+
+THE GAY COCKADE
+
+Unusual short stories in which Miss Bailey shows her knowledge of
+character and her skill in romance tales.
+
+TRUMPETER SWAN
+
+Randy Paine came back from France to the monotony of everyday affairs.
+But a girl showed him the beauty in the commonplace.
+
+THE TIN SOLDIER
+
+Derry wishes to serve his country but is bound by a tie he cannot in
+honor break. Jean loves him and shares his humiliation to help him win.
+
+MISTRESS ANNE
+
+Into the life of Anne came two men: one is weak and the other strong and
+they both need Anne.
+
+CONTRARY MARY
+
+An old fashioned love story that has a very modern application.
+
+GLORY OF YOUTH
+
+An old question yet ever new--how far should an engagement of marriage
+bind two persons who find they no longer love?
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+RUBY M. AYRES' NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+LOVERS
+
+ONE SUMMER
+
+LOVE CHANGES
+
+LIFE STEPS IN
+
+BROKEN
+
+CHARITY'S CHOSEN
+
+THE PLANTER OF THE TREE
+
+SPOILT MUSIC
+
+THE MAN WITHOUT A HEART
+
+A BACHELOR HUSBAND
+
+THE SECOND HONEYMOON
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ROMANCES OF THE MODERN GIRL
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.
+
+Here is a list of books by well known writers of romance stories for the
+modern girl. They are writers whose names have become famous with the
+publication of their stories as newspaper serials. These books are
+available in the Grosset & Dunlap Edition.
+
+MAY CHRISTIE
+
+The High Speed Girl
+Flirting Wives
+The Jazz Widow
+Love's Miracle
+A Kiss For Corinna
+Eager Love
+Man Madness
+Love's Ecstasy
+
+ALMA SIOUX SCARBERRY
+
+Make-Up
+The Dimpled Racketeer
+The Flat Tire
+High Hat
+
+BEATRICE BURTON
+
+The Little Yellow House
+Easy
+Money Love
+The Hollywood Girl
+Honey Lou
+The Flapper Wife
+Her Man
+
+ROBERT D. ANDREWS
+
+The Stolen Husband
+Three Girls Lost
+One Girl Found
+
+ROB EDEN
+
+The Lovely Liar
+Step-Child
+Love Blind
+The Girl with Red Hair
+Short Skirts
+
+ELENORE MEHERIN
+
+Miss Pat
+Jerry
+Chickie
+Chickie, A Sequel
+Nora Lee
+Sandy
+
+LAURA LOU BROOKMAN
+
+Tarnished
+Mad Marriage
+Heart Hungry
+As No Woman Hath Loved
+Her Love Problem
+Playmate
+The Heart Bandit
+
+JANE DIXON
+
+Miss Hard Boiled
+
+ANNE GARDNER
+
+Working Wives
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF SINCLAIR LEWIS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.
+
+Within the space of a few years Sinclair Lewis has become one of the
+most Distinguished of American Novelists.
+
+ELMER GANTRY
+
+Elmer Gantry, hypocrite and voluptuary, is painted against a background
+of church members and professing Christians scarcely less hypocritical
+than he. In this book Sinclair Lewis adds a violent stroke to his
+growing picture of materialistic America.
+
+MANTRAP
+
+A clever satire on the adventures of a New York lawyer seeking rest and
+diversion in the northwoods. Instead of rest he finds trouble in the
+person of his host's wife--young, pretty and flirtatious.
+
+ARROWSMITH
+
+The story of a country doctor whose search for truth led him to the
+heights of the medical profession, to the heights and depths of love and
+marriage and to final peace as a quietly heroic laboratory worker in the
+backwoods of Vermont.
+
+BABBITT
+
+Every man will recognize in the character of George Babbitt, something
+of himself. He was a booster and a joiner, but behind all of his
+activities was a wistful wonder as to what life holds.
+
+MAIN STREET
+
+Carol Kennicott's attempt to bring life and culture to Gopher Prairie
+and Gopher Prairie's reaction toward her teachings have made this book
+one of the most famous of the last decade.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.
+
+THE PRODIGAL GIRL
+DUSKIN
+CRIMSON ROSES
+OUT OF THE STORM
+THE HONOR GIRL
+JOB'S NIECE
+COMING THROUGH THE RYE
+A NEW NAME
+ARIEL CUSTER
+THE BEST MAN
+THE CITY OF FIRE
+CLOUDY JEWEL
+DAWN OF THE MORNING
+THE ENCHANTED BARN
+EXIT BETTY
+THE FINDING OF JASPER HOLT
+THE GIRL FROM MONTANA
+LO, MICHAEL
+THE MAN OF THE DESERT
+MARCIA SCHUYLER
+MIRANDA
+THE MYSTERY OF MARY
+PHOEBE DEANE
+THE RED SIGNAL
+THE SEARCH
+TOMORROW ABOUT THIS TIME
+THE TRYST
+THE WITNESS
+NOT UNDER THE LAW
+RE-CREATIONS
+THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Glory of Youth, by Temple Bailey
+
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Glory Of Youth, by Temple Bailey.
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Glory of Youth, by Temple Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Glory of Youth
+
+Author: Temple Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Henry Hutt
+             C. S. Corson
+
+Release Date: August 10, 2007 [EBook #22292]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLORY OF YOUTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Paul Stephen and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 412px;">
+<img src="images/cover01.jpg" width="412" height="600" alt="Cover" title="Cover" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="420" height="600" alt="HE IMPRISONED THE SMALL HAND" title="HE IMPRISONED THE SMALL HAND" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>GLORY OF<br /><br />
+YOUTH</h1>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h2>TEMPLE BAILEY</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF<br />
+CONTRARY MARY</h4>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY<br />
+HENRY HUTT and C. S. CORSON</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>COPYRIGHT<br />
+1913 BY<br />
+THE PENN<br />
+PUBLISHING<br />
+COMPANY</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 157px;">
+<img src="images/publishers_mark.jpg" width="157" height="140" alt="Publishers_mark" title="Publishers_mark" />
+</div>
+
+<h4>First printing, August, 1913<br />
+Second printing, February, 1916<br />
+Third printing February, 1917<br />
+Fourth printing August, 1919</h4>
+
+<h5>Manufacturing Plant<br />
+Camden, N. J.<br /><br /><br /></h5>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<h3><br /><br /><i>To<br />
+My Mother</i><br /><br /></h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+
+<tr><td align='left'>I.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bettina</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>II.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">In the Shadowy Room</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>III.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">In Which Diana Reaps</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>IV.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">White Lilacs</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>V.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">In Which Bettina Dances</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>VI.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">"For Every Man There Is Just One Woman"</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>VII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Harbor Light</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>VIII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Empty House</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>IX.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Golden Age</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>X.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Storm Signals</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XI.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The White Maiden</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_141'>141</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Youth and Beauty</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XIII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Her Letter to Anthony</span>
+</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_170'>170</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XIV.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Little Silver Ring</span>
+</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_185'>185</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XV.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">In Which Bettina Flies</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_199'>199</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XVI.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Voices in the Dark</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_213'>213</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XVII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Glory of Youth</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XVIII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Penance</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_242'>242</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XIX.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Her Father's Ring</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XX.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The "Gray Gull"</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_272'>272</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XXI.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">Broken Wings</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_285'>285</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XXII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Enchanted Forest</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_300'>300</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XXIII.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Procession of Pretty Ladies</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_316'>316</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>XXIV.</td>
+<td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Afterglow</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href='#Page_323'>323</a></td></tr>
+
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><br /><br /><a name="Glory_of_Youth" id="Glory_of_Youth"></a>Glory of Youth<br /><br /></h2>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>BETTINA</h3>
+
+
+<p>The girl knelt on the floor, feverishly packing a shabby little trunk.</p>
+
+<p>Outside was a streaming April storm, and the rain, rushing against the
+square, small-paned windows, shut out the view of the sea, shut out the
+light, and finally brought such darkness that the girl stood up with a
+sigh, brushed off her black dress with thin white hands, and groped her
+way to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the door was the blackness of an upper hall in a tall century-old
+house. A spiral stairway descended into a well of gloom. An ancient iron
+lantern, attached to a chain, hung from the low ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>The girl lighted the lantern, and the faint illumination made deeper the
+shadows below.</p>
+
+<p>And from the shadows came a man's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come up?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As the girl bent over the railing, the glow of the lantern made of her
+hair a shining halo. "Oh," she cried, radiantly, "I'm so glad you've
+come. I&mdash;I was afraid&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The thunder rolled, the waves pounded on the rocks, and the darkness
+grew more dense, but now the girl did not heed, for what mattered a mere
+storm, when, ascending the stairs, was one who knew fear neither of life
+nor of death, nor of the things which come after death?</p>
+
+<p>When at last her visitor emerged from the gloom, he showed himself
+beyond youthful years, with hair slightly touched with gray, not tall,
+but of a commanding presence, with clear, keen blue eyes, and with
+cheeks which were tanned by out-of-door exercise, and reddened by the
+prevailing weather.</p>
+
+<p>"I just had to come," he said, as he took her hand. "I knew you'd be
+frightened."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "Miss Matthews is at school, and I am alone&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And unhappy?"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips quivered, but she drew her hand from his, and went on into the
+shabby room, where she lighted a candle in a brass holder, and touched a
+match to a fire which was laid in the blackened brick fireplace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The doctor's quick eye noted the preparations for departure.</p>
+
+<p>"What does that mean?" he asked, and pointed to the trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am going away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," nervously; "I&mdash;I can't stay here, doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," tremulously, "it was all right when I had mother, because she was
+so sick that I was too busy to realize how deadly lonely it was here. I
+knew she needed the sea air, and she could get it better in the top of
+this old house than anywhere else. But now that she's gone&mdash;I can't
+stand it. I'm young, and Miss Matthews is away all day teaching&mdash;and
+when she comes home at night we have nothing in common, and there's the
+money left from the insurance&mdash;and so&mdash;I'm going away."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, with her red-gold hair in high relief against the worn
+leather of the chair in which she sat, at the flower-like face, the
+slender figure, the tiny feet in childish strapped slippers.</p>
+
+<p>"You aren't fit to fight the world," he said; "you aren't fit."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it won't be such a fight," she said. "I could get something to
+do in the city, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head. "You don't know&mdash;you can't know&mdash;&mdash;" Then he broke
+off to ask, "What would you do with your furniture?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Matthews would be glad to take the rooms just as they are. She was
+delighted when you asked her to stay with me after mother died. She
+loves our old things, the mahogany and the banjo clock, and the
+embroidered peacocks, and the Venetian heirlooms that belonged to Dad's
+family. But I hate them."</p>
+
+<p>"Hate them&mdash;why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, oh, you know, because Dad treated mother so dreadfully. He
+broke her heart."</p>
+
+<p>His practiced eye saw that she was speaking tensely.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you'd get me a cup of tea," he said, suddenly. "I'm just from
+the sanatorium. I operated on a bad case&mdash;and, well, that's sufficient
+excuse, isn't it, for me to want to drink a cup of tea with you?"</p>
+
+<p>She was busy in a moment with her hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, why didn't you tell me? And you're wet." Her hand touched his coat
+lightly as she passed him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The rain came so suddenly that I couldn't get the window of my car
+closed; it's an awful storm.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," he said, when she had brought the tea on an old Sheffield
+tray, and had set it on a little folding table which he placed between
+them on the hearth, "and now let's talk about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't try to make me stay&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, oh, because you can't know what I suffer here; it isn't just
+because I've lost mother, but the people&mdash;they all know about her and
+about Dad, and they aren't nice to me."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it's because father was a singer and an Italian, and mother
+came of good old Puritan stock. They seem to think she lowered herself
+by marrying him. They can't understand that though he was unkind to her,
+he belonged to an aristocratic Venetian family&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It's from those wonderful women of Venice, then, that you get that
+hair. Do you remember Browning's:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Dear dead women, with such hair, too&mdash;what's become of all the gold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.'"<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>There was no response to his thought in her young eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I've never read Browning," she said, negligently, "and I hate to think
+of 'dear dead women.' I want to think of live things, of bright things,
+of gay things. It seems sometimes as if I should die here among the
+shadows."</p>
+
+<p>She was sobbing now, with her head on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Bettina," the doctor bent over her, "poor child, poor little child."</p>
+
+<p>"Please let me go," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't keep you, of course. I wish I knew what to do. I wish Diana
+were here."</p>
+
+<p>"Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot that you did not know her. She has been away for two years.
+She's rather wonderful, Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>The girl raised her head. The man was gazing straight into the fire. All
+the eager light that had made his face seem young had gone, and he
+looked worn and tired. Bettina had no worldly intuitions to teach her
+the reason for the change a woman's name had wrought, and so absorbed
+was she in her own trouble that she viewed the transformation with
+unseeing eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What could she do if she were here?" she asked with childish
+directness.</p>
+
+<p>"She would find some way out of it&mdash;she is very wise." He spoke with
+some hesitation, as a man speaks who holds a subject sacred. "She has
+had to decide things for herself all her life&mdash;her father and mother
+died when she was a little girl; now she is over thirty and the mistress
+of a large fortune. She spends her winters in the city and her summers
+down here by the sea&mdash;but for the past two years she has been staying in
+Europe with a widowed friend who was a schoolmate of hers in Berlin."</p>
+
+<p>"When is she coming back?"</p>
+
+<p>Out of a long silence, he answered, "I am not sure that she will come
+back. Her engagement was announced last fall&mdash;to a German, Ulric Van
+Rosen&mdash;she is to be married in June."</p>
+
+<p>The fact, to him so pregnant of woeful possibilities, meant little to
+Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course if she's not here, she can't do anything&mdash;and anyhow most
+people don't care to do practical things to help, do they?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked so childish, so appealing, so altogether exquisite and young
+in her black-robed slenderness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> that he answered her as he would have
+answered a child.</p>
+
+<p>"It's too bad that the world should hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm going to do wonderful things in the city."</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful things&mdash;poor little girl&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As he brought his eyes back from the fire to her face, he seemed to
+bring his thoughts back from an uneasy reverie.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought," he said, "to marry&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The color flamed into the girl's cheeks. "Mother was always saying that,
+in those last days. But I hated to have her; it seemed so dreadful to
+talk of marriage&mdash;without love. I know she didn't mean it that way, poor
+darling! She married for love and her life was such a failure. But I
+couldn't&mdash;not just to get married, could I&mdash;not just to have some one
+take care of me?"</p>
+
+<p>He stood up, and thrust his hands in his pockets. "No," he agreed
+bluffly, "you couldn't, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"And there's never been any one in love with me," was her naive
+confession, "and I've never been in love, not really&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was looking down at her with smiling eyes. "There's plenty of time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;that's what I always told mother&mdash;but she dreaded to think of
+me&mdash;alone."</p>
+
+<p>The eager, dying woman had said the same thing to the doctor, and it had
+seemed to him, sometimes, that her burning eyes had begged of him a
+favor which he could not grant.</p>
+
+<p>For there had always been&mdash;Diana!</p>
+
+<p>He straightened his shoulders. "I'm going to ask you to stay here," he
+said, "instead of going to the city. I haven't any real right to keep
+you, for I'm not legally your guardian, but I promised your mother to
+look after you. I can find work for you. We need some one at the
+sanatorium to look after the office&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment she set her will against his. "But I'd rather go to the
+city."</p>
+
+<p>He put his strong hands on her shoulders. "Little child, look at me," he
+said, and when she flashed up at him a startled glance, he went on,
+gently, "Your mother wanted me to take care of you&mdash;to keep you from
+harm. In the city you'll be too far away. I want you to stay here. Will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>And presently she whispered, "I will stay."</p>
+
+<p>Outside the rain was rushing and the wind was blowing, and plain little
+Miss Matthews battled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> the storm. Miss Matthews, who, every day in
+the year, taught a class of tumultuous children, and whose life dealt
+always with the commonplace. And it was plain little Miss Matthews who,
+having weathered the storm and climbed the winding stairs, came in,
+rain-coated and soft-hatted, to find by the fire the doctor drawing on
+his gloves and Bettina hovering about him like a gold-tipped butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a dreadful storm," said Miss Matthews, superfluously, as Bettina
+went to get boiling water. "There's a young man down-stairs who wants to
+speak to you, Dr. Blake. He said that he couldn't find you at the
+sanatorium. He saw your car in front of the house and knew you were
+here. But the bell wouldn't ring, and so he waited. I told him the bell
+was broken and that you'd come down at once. He's hurt his hand."</p>
+
+<p>"They would have fixed him up at the sanatorium."</p>
+
+<p>"He said he wanted you, and nobody else, and that he came into the hall
+because he was like a pussy cat and hated the rain. He is a queer
+looking creature in a leather cap and leather leggins."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor gave an amused laugh. "That's Justin Ford," he said; "the
+pussy-cat speech sounds like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> him, and he wears the leather costume when
+he flies."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, coming back with fresh tea for Miss Matthews, asked, "How does
+he fly?"</p>
+
+<p>"In an aeroplane. He's to try out his hydro-aeroplane to-morrow. He's
+probably been at work on the machinery and hurt his hand."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina sparkled. "Think of a man who can fly," she said. "Doesn't it
+sound incredible?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the most marvelous thing in the world," said the big-hearted
+surgeon, not knowing that he, as a man of healing, was more marvelous,
+for he had to do with the mechanics of flesh and blood, while Justin had
+to do only with steel and aluminum and canvas, which are, at best,
+unimportant things when compared with nerves and ligaments and bones.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind if Ford came up?" the doctor asked. "I've got to go
+straight to my old man with the pneumonia after I leave here, and I
+could look at his hand."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina shivered. "Shall I have to look at it?" she asked in a little
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>He laughed. "Of course not. You can go in the other room."</p>
+
+<p>But when the young man, who had answered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> doctors call, entered, she
+did not go, for the face which was framed by the leather cap was that of
+a youth whose beauty matched her own, and whose mocking eyes, as he
+acknowledged the introduction, seemed to beat against the door of her
+maiden heart and demand admission.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE SHADOWY ROOM</h3>
+
+
+<p>The injury to Justin's hand proved to be one of strain and sprain.</p>
+
+<p>"A bandage for a few days," the doctor pronounced, "and then a little
+carefulness, and you'll be all right."</p>
+
+<p>Justin lingered. The little fire was like a heart of gold in the shadowy
+room. Plain little Miss Matthews sipped her tea, with her feet on the
+fender. Bettina, during the doctor's examination of Justin's hand, had
+seated herself in her low chair on the hearth, and now her eyes were
+fixed steadily on the flames.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a shivery, shaky sort of day," said Justin, surveying the teapot
+longingly, and Anthony laughed. "He wants his tea, Bettina," he said,
+"and a place by your fire. It's another of his pussy-cat traits&mdash;so if
+you'll be good to him, I'll have another cup, and he shall tell us about
+his hydro-aeroplane."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Justin, standing in front of the fire, was like a young god fresh from
+Olympus. His nose was straight, his mocking eyes a golden-brown, and,
+with his cap off, his upstanding shock of hair showed glittering lights.
+In deference to the prevailing fashion, his fair little mustache was
+slightly upturned at the corners. He had doffed his rain coat, and
+appeared in a brown Norfolk suit with leather leggins that reached his
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I've intruded upon your hospitality," he said to Bettina, as
+she handed him a steaming cup, "but I'm always falling into pleasant
+things&mdash;and I haven't the will power to get out when I should, truly I
+haven't. But it isn't my fault&mdash;it's just a part of my pussy-cat
+inheritance."</p>
+
+<p>"He can afford to say such things," Anthony remarked; "he's really more
+like a bird than a pussy cat. You should see him up in the air."</p>
+
+<p>Justin's eyes flashed. "You should see me coming down on the water after
+a flight. By Jove, Anthony, that's the most wonderful little machine.
+I've called her 'The Gray Gull' because she not only flies but
+swims&mdash;cuts through the water like a motor boat."</p>
+
+<p>As he talked his eyes were on Bettina. "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> beauty, you beauty," was
+the thought which thrilled him.</p>
+
+<p>When, at last, he stood up, he apologized somewhat formally. "I've
+stayed too long," he said, "but Anthony must make my excuses. I was down
+there in Purgatory&mdash;and he showed me&mdash;Paradise."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor looked at him sharply. He knew Justin as a man of the
+world&mdash;gay, irresponsible&mdash;and Bettina had no one to watch over her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take you as far as the shops," he said, crisply, "and then I must
+get at once to my old man with the pneumonia."</p>
+
+<p>As the two men rode away in the doctor's small covered car, Justin
+asked, "Where did you discover her?" Anthony, his eyes fixed on the
+muddy road ahead of them, gave a brief outline: "Professionally. The
+mother died in those rooms. The girl is alone, except for Miss Matthews
+and the old Lane sisters who own the house and live in the lower part. I
+have constituted myself a sort of guardian for Bettina&mdash;the mother
+requested it, and I couldn't refuse."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Justin asked no more questions, but settled himself back in a
+cushioned corner, and as the two men rode on in silence, their thoughts
+were cen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>tered on the single vision of a shadowy room, and of a slender
+golden-haired, black-robed figure against a background of glowing flame.</p>
+
+<p>All that night and the next day the doctor battled with Death, and came
+out triumphant. By four o'clock in the afternoon the old man with
+pneumonia showed signs of holding his own.</p>
+
+<p>Worn out, Anthony drove back toward the sanatorium. The rain was over,
+but a heavy fog had rolled in, so that the doctor's little car seemed to
+float in a sea of cloud. Now and then another car passed him,
+specter-like amid the grayness. Silent figures, magnified by the mist,
+came and went like shadow pictures on a screen. From the far distance
+sounded the incessant moan of fog-horns.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony stopped his car in front of a small shop, whose lights struggled
+faintly against the gloom.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the threshold, he went from a world of dampness and chill into
+the warmth and cheer of an old-fashioned fish house.</p>
+
+<p>For fifty years there had been no change in Lillibridge's. The floor of
+the main room was bare and clean, and, in the middle, a round black
+stove radiated comfort on cold days. Along one side of the room ran
+three stalls, in which were placed tables for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> such patrons as might
+desire partial privacy. On the spick and span counter were set forth
+various condiments and plates of crackers. A card, tacked up on the
+wall, tempted the appetite with its list of sea foods.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony wanted nothing to eat. He ordered coffee, and went into one of
+the stalls to drink it.</p>
+
+<p>But a man at one of the tables in the main part of the room wanted more
+than coffee. He was a little man in a blue reefer, but he had,
+evidently, more than a little appetite. As Anthony sat down, he was just
+finishing a bowl of chowder, and was gazing with eyes of hungry
+appreciation upon various dishes of fried fish and fried potatoes, of
+hot rolls and pickles which were being set before him.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better have some, doctor," was his hoarse invitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Too tired," said Anthony. "I'll wait till I've had a bath and rub-down
+before I eat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What you need," said the little man, between large mouthfuls, "is a
+good day's fishin'. You come out to-morrow morning, and we'll catch some
+cod."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor's tired eyes brightened. "There's nothing that I'd like
+better, captain, but I've got an old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> man ill of pneumonia, and there's
+a girl with appendicitis."</p>
+
+<p>"There you go," said the little man; "if it wasn't a girl with
+appendicitis, it would be a kid with the colic, or a lady with a claim
+to heart trouble. What you've got to do, doctor, is to cut it all out
+and come with me."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony shook his head. "Suppose some one had said to you when you
+sailed the seas that you could leave the ship&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't have left," said the little man, "but I didn't have such a
+look as you've got in your eyes. What you need is a good night's sleep,
+and a day's fishin'. And you need it now."</p>
+
+<p>Having eaten presently his last morsel, he ordered a piece of pie.
+"There's nothing like sea air to blow your brains clear," he stated.
+"And when this fog lifts, it'll be fine fishin' weather."</p>
+
+<p>Again the doctor shook his head. "I'd like it, more than a little, but
+I've got to stick to my post."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Stubbs began on his pie, and remarked, "The trouble with you is
+that you're mixed up with too many wimmen."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony's head went up. "What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wimmen," said the little captain, "are bad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> enough anyhow. But when you
+have to handle a lot of wimmen with nerves, then the Lord help you."</p>
+
+<p>He said it so solemnly that Anthony threw back his head and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, up at that sannytarium of yours," said the captain, "there's about
+ten of them that need to be dipped into the good salt sea and hung up in
+the sun to dry, and that's all they need, no coddling and medicine and
+operations&mdash;but just a cold shock and a warm-up&mdash;and a day's fishin'."</p>
+
+<p>And now Anthony did not laugh. "By Jove," he said, "I believe you're
+right. I'm going to try some personally conducted parties, and you shall
+take them out, captain&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Me&mdash;&mdash;?" the captain demanded, incredulously. "Me take those wimmen out
+fishin'?"</p>
+
+<p>Anthony nodded. "Yes, once a week. Is it a bargain?"</p>
+
+<p>The captain stood up. "No, it ain't," he said, firmly. "I'll take you
+and gladly. But not any of that nervous bunch."</p>
+
+<p>He settled his cap firmly on his head, and went toward the door. Then he
+turned. "Some day," he said, "I'm going to ask that Betty child to go
+out in my boat."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Bettina?" Anthony's mind went swiftly to the shadowed room.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. She's lonesome, and so was her mother. I used to take fish up to
+them, and I showed the Betty child how to make chowder."</p>
+
+<p>"She told me," said Anthony. "You're one of her best friends, captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, goodness only knows she needs friends," said the little captain,
+adding with a significant emphasis which escaped the preoccupied
+Anthony, "She needs somebody to take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>Receiving no response, the little man lighted his pipe, buttoned his
+coat, and, remarking genially, "Well, you let me know about that day's
+fishin'," he steamed out.</p>
+
+<p>After his departure Anthony sat for some time in the deserted room. He
+knew that rest and refreshment were waiting for him and he knew that he
+needed them, but his mind was weighed down by the problem of that
+helpless child in the old house. All through the night as he had battled
+for the life of his patient, he had thought of her, who must battle with
+the world. He could get her work, of course, but he shrank from the
+thought of her pale loveliness set to sordid uses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With a sudden gesture of resolution, he stood up and drew on his gloves.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later he was climbing the winding stairway, where the iron
+lantern again illumined the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>There had been no response to his call from below, and when he reached
+the upper landing he found the door shut. He knocked and presently
+Bettina came. He saw at a glance that she had been crying.</p>
+
+<p>"I can stay only a minute," he said. "I haven't had much sleep since I
+saw you yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll make you some tea," she offered, but he stopped her with a quick,
+"No, no,&mdash;I've just had coffee, and I must get home."</p>
+
+<p>They sat down, somewhat stiffly, on opposite sides of the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>"What made you cry?" he asked, with his keen eyes on her downcast face.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything&mdash;the rain yesterday&mdash;the fog to-day. I wish the sun would
+shine&mdash;I wish&mdash;I were&mdash;dead&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>With a sharp exclamation, he stood up. "You're too young to say such
+things&mdash;there's all of life before you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said dully, "there's all of life&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>To him she was a most appealing figure. Her weakness seemed to stand out
+against the background of his strength. Suddenly he held out his hands
+to her. "Come here, Betty child," he said, using, unconsciously, the
+little captain's name for her, "come here."</p>
+
+<p>Some new note in his voice made her cheeks flame, but she obeyed him. He
+took both of her hands in his. "I've been thinking of you, and your
+future. Somehow I can't see you, a little slip of a thing like you,
+being beaten and bruised by the hard things of life. The world is cruel
+and you are so&mdash;sweet. You need some one to take care of you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she whispered; "but there isn't any one."</p>
+
+<p>"Except me. And I'm such an old fellow&mdash;years too old for you. But I'm
+alone, and you're alone. Could I make you happy, Betty child?"</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him, all the bright color gone from her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how?" Her voice fluttered and died.</p>
+
+<p>"As my wife. There's the big house on the rocks that I am building."</p>
+
+<p>He faltered. The great house had been built for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> Diana, on a sudden
+hopeful impulse that when it was finished she would consent to be its
+mistress.</p>
+
+<p>"There's the big house," he went on, after a moment, "and there's money
+enough and to spare. Not that I want you to marry me for that, but I
+think I could comfort you in your loneliness, Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>In her secluded girlhood there had been no opportunity for masculine
+adoration; hence there seemed nothing lacking when this man of men,
+whose coming during her mother's illness had made the one bright spot in
+her day, whose sympathy had comforted her in her sorrow, whose
+friendship had sustained her in the months which had followed her great
+loss, when he spoke of marriage with never a word of love.</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm not wise enough or good enough," she said, with a quick catch
+of her breath.</p>
+
+<p>He drew her to him, holding her gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like," he asked, "would you like to think that all your life
+I should take care of you?"</p>
+
+<p>She lay quietly, not answering for a while, then she whispered, "Do you
+really want me?"</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps his arm relaxed a little, but his voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> was very steady. "I
+really want to make you happy."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll let me love you with all my heart?" Her eyes were hidden.</p>
+
+<p>He put his hand against the softness of her hair, turning her face up
+toward him. "I shall hope that you may love me with all your heart, and
+that I may be worthy of it."</p>
+
+<p>Her hand crept up and touched his cheek. "Kiss me," she whispered, like
+a child.</p>
+
+<p>He would have been less than a man if his heart had not leaped a little,
+if he had not responded to the love call of this wistful white and gold
+woman creature.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," he said, brokenly, and bent his head.</p>
+
+<p>On the foggy streets below men and women passed and repassed like ghosts
+in the stillness. Little Miss Matthews, meeting Captain Stubbs on a
+street corner, was unconscious of his nearness until the little captain,
+guided by that sixth sense, which is given to sailors for their
+protection at sea, hailed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't hurry home," he told her; "that Betty child don't want you.
+Dr. Blake is there. That's his car."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He was there yesterday," said Miss Matthews, disturbed by the doctor's
+departure from his usual routine.</p>
+
+<p>"And he'll probably be there to-morrow; he's getting sweet on that Betty
+child, Miss Mattie."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, no," said the shocked Miss Matthews. "Why, he's in love with
+Diana Gregory."</p>
+
+<p>The captain gazed at her blankly. "You don't mean it," he protested.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," said Miss Matthews; "they've known each other all their
+lives. But she doesn't want to settle down."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she'd better look out," said the little captain; "men won't wait
+forever."</p>
+
+<p>"Men like Anthony Blake," returned Miss Matthews with conviction, "will.
+And as for Bettina, she's nothing but a child!"</p>
+
+<p>The little captain carried the conversation over, tactfully, to his
+favorite topic. "I want you and that Betty child to go with me for a
+day's fishin' soon," he said; "you just name the day."</p>
+
+<p>Little Miss Matthews hated the sea, with the hatred of a woman whose
+ancestors had made their living on the Banks and had been drowned in
+storms. But she liked the captain. "I am sure you are very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> kind," she
+said, primly, "but it will have to be Saturday when there isn't any
+school."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the captain,&mdash;"make it a week from Saturday, and we'll
+probably have clearing weather."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, going down, met little Miss Matthews. Bettina, leaning over
+the rail, greeted the little lady somewhat self-consciously. "I'll make
+your tea in a minute," she said; "the doctor didn't want any."</p>
+
+<p>When Anthony reached the bottom of the stair, he looked up. The faint
+light of the lantern drew a circle of radiance about Bettina's head.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," she called softly, and came down to him, and in the darkness
+whispered that she was happy, so very happy&mdash;and would she see him soon?</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow," he promised, and went away with his pulses pounding.</p>
+
+<p>All the way home he thought of her. She had been charming. He felt like
+an adventuring knight, who, having killed all the dragons, rescues the
+captive princess from her tower. She was a dear child. A dear&mdash;child.</p>
+
+<p>At the sanatorium he had a bath and a good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> dinner, and made his rounds.
+One little woman, when he had passed, spoke to another of his smile. "It
+is as if he were happy in his heart," she said, quaintly; "before this
+his eyes have been sad."</p>
+
+<p>Later the doctor found time to read his mail. On the top of the pile of
+letters was a thick one in a gray envelope addressed in feminine script.
+He opened it and read eagerly. Then he sat very still, trying, amid all
+the beating agony of emotion, to grasp the truth as she had told it.
+Diana was free. Her engagement was broken. She was coming back to
+America. "I am coming home to the big house&mdash;and to you&mdash;Anthony." And
+she would be there in just ten days!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>IN WHICH DIANA REAPS</h3>
+
+
+<p>All the way down in the train Diana kept saying to her friend, "I am so
+glad you are going to see my house, Sophie. You can't imagine how lovely
+it is."</p>
+
+<p>But even then Mrs. Martens was not prepared. She was given a room on the
+third floor from which glass doors opened on a little balcony which
+overhung the harbor. It was like the upper deck of a ship with the open
+sea to the right and left, and with a strip of green peninsula cutting
+into it beyond the causeway.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the Neck," Diana explained; "the yacht clubs are over there and
+some hotels and big houses. But I like it on this side, in the town.
+It's so quaint and lovely. I'll show you some of it to-morrow morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going anywhere to-morrow morning. I am going to sleep until
+noon."</p>
+
+<p>Diana bent and kissed her. "Poor thing, is she tired?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I won't wake you. But I am going to be up with the dawn, Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martens turned and looked at her. "Is Anthony here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Diana caught her breath as she said it, and the two friends stood,
+silently, looking over the harbor.</p>
+
+<p>The twilight was taking the blue out of the water, but the beauty was
+still there&mdash;with the lights on the anchored boats twinkling like stars
+in the grayness, and the lighthouse making a great moon above them.</p>
+
+<p>"When will you see him, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm going to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"You're not&mdash;I want you to meet him, Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"You want him every bit for yourself. Don't be a hypocrite, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>Diana laid her hands on Sophie's shoulders and shook her a little,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie, do you ever feel so young that you are almost wild with it&mdash;as
+if there hadn't been any years since you wore pinafores and pigtails?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;I'm thirty-five, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't shout it from the housetops. I'm a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> few years behind. What a
+lot of wasted years, Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"It's your own fault, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"But I wanted to be free&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And now you are longing for your prison&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"With Anthony&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better go down and dress, dear. Put on that pale blue, with your
+pearls, Diana. It fits in with the moonlight."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you won't come down?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I'll have Peter for company."</p>
+
+<p>Peter Pan was Diana's cat. He was as yellow as a harvest moon, he was
+fed on fish, and was of a prodigious fatness. During Diana's sojourn
+abroad he had been looked after by Delia Hobbs.</p>
+
+<p>Delia was Diana's housekeeper. She had a lame hip and a lovely mind. She
+went up to Mrs. Martens' room after Diana had left to see if the little
+lady was comfortable for the night.</p>
+
+<p>She eyed Peter Pan, who was in the middle of the big bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Peter," she said, severely, "that's no place for you."</p>
+
+<p>Peter rolled over, and clawed the lace spread luxuriously.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Shall I take him off, ma'am?" Delia asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It's nice to have him here," said Mrs. Martens, doubtfully, "but
+perhaps I ought not to let him stay. You know best, Delia."</p>
+
+<p>Delia, a little flattered by such deference, hesitated. "I might bring
+his basket up here," she said; "he isn't a bit of trouble. He just goes
+to sleep and doesn't wake up until morning."</p>
+
+<p>As Delia opened the door to go down, the rippling measures of "The
+Spring Song," played softly, came up to them. Sophie had a vision of
+Diana in her shimmering gown, waiting in the moonlight for Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>Delia came back with the basket. It was of brown wicker with brown
+cushions. Peter, curled up in it, made a sunflower combination.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure you're all right, Miss Sophie?" Delia asked as she stood
+on the threshold. "If you don't want the electric light, there's a
+candle on your table, and if you like the air straight from the sea you
+can open the door on the porch. Miss Diana used to like to lie and look
+at the moonlight."</p>
+
+<p>The whole world seemed obsessed by the moonlight. Its white radiance,
+when Mrs. Martens at last turned off the glaring bulbs, seemed to cast a
+spell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> over sea and land. She stepped out on the porch, and was awed by
+the beauty of the wide sweep of shining sky and sea. Then, far below on
+the hidden road, she heard the beat of a motor.</p>
+
+<p>The sound ceased and a man's quick step came up the path. There was the
+whirr of an electric bell, and she knew that Anthony had come.</p>
+
+<p>Well, Diana had her Anthony&mdash;and she had&mdash;Peter! She laughed a little to
+stifle a sigh. Diana had the substance&mdash;she her shadowy memories.</p>
+
+<p>A faint breeze had sprung up. The yachts tugged at their moorings
+as the tide turned. Far to the southeast Minot's light blinked its
+one-four-three&mdash;"I-warn-you"&mdash;message to the ships. Diana had
+once said of it, "The sweethearts off the coast translate it
+differently&mdash;'I-love-you.' That's what Anthony told me."</p>
+
+<p>How she had always quoted him! Even when for a brief time she had
+drifted toward that other, she had clung to her belief in Anthony's
+faith and goodness&mdash;and when she had shaken herself free she had flown
+back to him.</p>
+
+<p>And now&mdash;in the dim room below Diana was coming at last into her own!</p>
+
+<p>The little lady crept into bed, shivering&mdash;perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> with the chill of
+the spring night, perhaps with the thought of the happiness from which
+she was left out.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she heard again the beat of the motor. Beginning in front of
+the house, it grew fainter in the distance; then silence, and at last a
+soft step on the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie," there was that in Diana's voice which made her sit up and
+listen, "Sophie, are you asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martens lighted the bedside candle with shaking hands. Diana came
+forward into the circle of light. Diana&mdash;with all of youth gone from
+her. Diana stripped of joy. Diana with the shimmering blue gown seeming
+to mock the tragedy in her face.</p>
+
+<p>She came up to the bed and stood looking down at her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Sophie," she said, brokenly, "see what I've done. Anthony is
+engaged, Sophie. Engaged to another girl!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Peter, in his basket, slept soundly all night. But Sophie slept not at
+all. And early in the morning she went down to her friend.</p>
+
+<p>Diana had taken the room which had been her mother's. She had kept the
+carved canopy bed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> other massive pieces, but she had changed the
+hangings and the wall covering from mauve to rose-color.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Sophie," she had explained one day in Berlin, "there comes a
+time in the life of every woman when she needs rose-color to counteract
+the gray of her existence. If you put blue with gray you get gray. But
+if you put pink with gray you get rose-color. Perhaps you didn't know
+that before, Sophie, but now you do. And you'll know also that when I
+dare wear a blue gown I am feeling positively infantile."</p>
+
+<p>Diana, in n&eacute;glig&eacute;, had always made Mrs. Martens think of a rose in
+bloom. She had a fashion of swathing her head, cap-fashion, in wide pink
+ribbon, and her cr&ecirc;pe kimonos always reflected the same enchanting hue.</p>
+
+<p>But this morning it was a white rose which lay back on the pillows.
+Diana's loose brown braids hung straight down on each side of her pale
+face. There were shadows under her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't look at me that way, Sophie," she said, sharply, as Mrs. Martens
+came up to the bed. "I&mdash;I'm not going into a decline&mdash;or break my
+heart&mdash;or&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She broke off and said in a changed voice, "You're a dear." Then with a
+pitiful little laugh, "It wouldn't be so hard&mdash;but she's so young,
+Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"Eighteen&mdash;poor Anthony!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he is really unhappy, Sophie?"</p>
+
+<p>The night before when she had lain in Mrs. Martens' comforting arms, she
+had thought only of her own misery. For a time she had been just a
+little sobbing child to be consoled. All her poise, all her
+self-restraint had gone down under the force of the overwhelming shock.</p>
+
+<p>But now a wild hope sprang up in her breast. Why should two people
+suffer for the sake of one? And the other girl was so young&mdash;she would
+get over it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, remembering Anthony's face as he had left her, she had little hope.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you might have been prepared for this," he had said. "I wrote a
+letter, but it must have missed you. Perhaps it has been best to talk it
+out&mdash;that's why I came. May I still come, sometimes, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>Then her pride had risen to meet the crisis.</p>
+
+<p>"As if anything could spoil our friendship, An<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>thony," she had told him
+bravely. "I want you to come&mdash;and some day you must bring&mdash;the Girl."</p>
+
+<p>"You will like her," he had said, eagerly, with a man's blundering
+confidence, "and you can help her. She is very lonely, Diana&mdash;and I was
+lonely&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>That had been the one shred of apology which he had vouchsafed for the
+act which had spoiled their lives.</p>
+
+<p>When he had first entered the moonlighted room, she had turned from the
+piano and had held out her hands to him.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken them, and had stood looking down at her, with eyes which
+spoke what his lips would not say.</p>
+
+<p>And at last he had asked, "Why didn't you marry that fellow in Berlin,
+Di?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I didn't love him, Anthony. I found out just in time&mdash;and I
+found out, too, just in time that&mdash;it was you&mdash;Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>Then he had said, "Hush," and had dropped her hands, and after a long
+time, he had spoken. "Di, I've asked another woman to marry me, and she
+has said, 'Yes.'"</p>
+
+<p>Out of a stunned silence she had whispered. "How&mdash;did it happen?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me&mdash;it is done&mdash;and it can't be undone&mdash;we have made a mess
+of things, Diana&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He gave the bare details; of the sick mother who had crept back after
+years of absence to die in her own town, of the girl and her loneliness,
+of her child-like faith in him.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, she had laid her hand on his arm. "But do you love
+her, do you really love her, Anthony?" had been her desolate demand.</p>
+
+<p>He had drawn back, and not meeting her eyes, had said, very low, "You
+haven't the right to ask that question, Di, or I to answer it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And in that moment she had realized that the barrier which separated
+herself and Anthony was high enough to shut out happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;oh." As Diana's thoughts came back to the present, she sat up in
+bed and wept helplessly. "Oh, I don't know what I am going to do,
+Sophie. I've always been so self-sufficient, and now it seems as if my
+whole world revolves about one man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Never before had Diana, self-contained Diana, talked to her friend of
+the things which lay deep beneath the surface, but now she revealed her
+soul to the little woman who had known love in all its fulfilment, and
+who, having lost that love, still lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>.</p>
+
+<p>"What you must do," said Sophie, softly, "is to face it. You've got to
+look at the thing squarely, dearest-dear. It is because you and Anthony
+forgot to keep burning the sacred fires that this trouble has come upon
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Sophie?"</p>
+
+<p>"When two people love each other," said Sophie, slowly, "it is a
+wonderful thing, a sacred thing, Diana. What you gave Ulric was not
+love&mdash;you were fascinated for the moment, and when you found him
+disappointing, you let him go lightly, yet all the time, deep in your
+heart, was this great Anthony&mdash;is it not so, my Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the other whispered, with her face hidden.</p>
+
+<p>"And Anthony, when he thought he had lost you, took this little girl to
+fill your place&mdash;and she can never fill it, and so because each of you
+has made of love a light thing, you must have your punishment. We must
+reap what we sow, Diana.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think I am not sympathetic, liebchen," she went on, "but, oh,
+Diana, I'd rather see you this way than with Ulric Van Rosen as your
+lover."</p>
+
+<p>She knelt by the bed with her arms about her friend. Two years before
+Diana had comforted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> Sophie when death had claimed the great-hearted
+husband who had made the little woman's life complete. Since then they
+had clung together, and there had developed in Sophie an almost maternal
+devotion for the brilliant girl who had hitherto moved through life
+triumphant and serene.</p>
+
+<p>Delia, at the door, presented a worried face. "I've got some milk toast
+for Miss Diana," she explained, "and your breakfast is waiting for you,
+Miss Sophie&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Breakfast," Diana pushed back the brown brightness of her hair and
+laughed hysterically; "is that the way the world must go on for me now,
+Sophie? You know&mdash;for you've been through it&mdash;must I eat and drink and
+be merry when my heart is&mdash;broken&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush." Again she was in Sophie's arms. "Delia will hear."</p>
+
+<p>But Delia's imagination had not grasped the possibility of any mental or
+spiritual disturbance. "I guess she's got one of her mother's
+headaches," she said, as she edged herself further into the room. "I
+always knew she'd have them some day&mdash;although up to now she's been
+perfectly well."</p>
+
+<p>"Set the tray on the table, Delia," Mrs. Martens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> spoke over her
+shoulder, "and I'll come down presently&mdash;and you might go up and get
+Peter. I think I shut the door as I came out&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Delia took the hint. "There's broiled fish and waffles," she complained,
+as she departed, "and they don't taste any better for waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"You go down, Sophie," said Diana, when they were alone&mdash;"and I'll get
+up presently, and then&mdash;I'll see some way out of it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At her tone, her friend who had crossed the room to pull up the shades
+turned and looked at her. "What way <i>can</i> you see, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana slipped out of bed and stood up, tall and white, with the long
+brown braids hanging heavily to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be some way," she said, "for all of us. I don't believe in
+sitting down and letting things go wrong, and they may be as wrong for
+that little girl as for Anthony and me&mdash;surely one must use common sense
+in a case like this&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie pulled up the curtain, letting in a flood of sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>"One may use common sense," she said, "but one must be very careful&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Diana twisted her braids into a coronet, and put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> on a padded Japanese
+robe, for the air blew cool from the sea. Then she sat down at her desk.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to ask her to come and visit me, Sophie. I want you to take
+the letter when you go down to breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"To visit you&mdash;who?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bettina. She can stay until Anthony's big house is ready. I want to
+know his little girl."</p>
+
+<p>While Diana wrote her note, Sophie stepped out on the porch which
+matched her own above it. The harbor lay still and beautiful, a sapphire
+sheet in the morning calm. The anchored boats seemed to sleep like great
+white birds on its bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there broke upon the stillness the sound of a great buzzing, as
+of some mammoth bee.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Diana, standing in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, oh, look," cried Sophie, and then they saw above them, darting
+like a dragon-fly through the golden haze, a magic ship of the air.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who's flying," said Diana, as they watched it go up and up
+until it was a mere speck against the blue. "They are daring folk, these
+flying men&mdash;yet there are men more daring. If you could see Anthony's
+hands! Those strong, compe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>tent hands that work with instruments and
+surgeon's needles, and a slip may mean some one's life&mdash;it's such men
+who are the bravest, Sophie, not the men who fly."</p>
+
+<p>The little woman stepped back within the circle of her friend's arm.
+Diana towered a head above her, yet spiritually she leaned on Sophie's
+fineness and faith.</p>
+
+<p>Their eyes followed that astounding flight, but their thoughts were with
+a man whose mornings were spent not in the golden radiance of the upper
+air, but in the bare blackness of an operating room.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Diana spoke sharply. "If I have lost him, Sophie, what shall I
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do all women do," said Sophie, still gazing with rapt face up into
+the heavens, "what do all women do who lose the men they love? They pray
+for courage, Diana, and for strength&mdash;and then&mdash;and then they fight as
+best they can until the end&mdash;Diana."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>WHITE LILACS</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Isn't it dear of her to ask me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very." Anthony took the note which Bettina handed him. In his desk were
+many letters written on the gray paper with the silver monogram.
+Subconsciously he realized that he ought to destroy them, but there was
+time enough for that.</p>
+
+<p>"She says she wants me to stay with her all summer; do you think I
+ought?"</p>
+
+<p>"She would not have asked you if she had not meant it."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, with her small feet on the fender, considered the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to come and see me there, and I'll miss our twilight talks
+by the fire, with Miss Matthews away, and tea, and no one to
+interrupt&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The days are growing longer. Soon there will be no twilights and no
+fire&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And you want me to go?"</p>
+
+<p>His nature was perfectly honest, and he meant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> that there should be no
+barriers between himself and this child-woman. So he told her the truth.
+"I don't know. But you'll be very gay. There'll be the dances at the
+yacht clubs, and you'll be entertained on the boats, and you'll meet
+lots of people. Diana knows every one, and her money and position and
+her beauty make her much in demand."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it funny she has never married?"</p>
+
+<p>"Funny"&mdash;sharply; "no, it's not funny. It's tragic."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because such women as Diana should marry. She has all the qualities for
+a wife and mother&mdash;she is wise and true and good, and there aren't many
+women like that in the world&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," the girl drew her breath quickly, "I'm not like that&mdash;I'm little
+and childish, and I'm not wise."</p>
+
+<p>He saw what he had done and tried to make amends.</p>
+
+<p>"You are&mdash;you, Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Bettina crossed the hearth-rug, and sat down on a stool at his
+feet, "she's awfully old, isn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, she's years younger than I."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you," she laughed and laid her cheek<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> against his hand. "Your heart
+is just my age, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>He moved restlessly, then stood up, with Diana's note still in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better write and tell her you'll come," he said. "I'll take you
+over to-morrow in my car."</p>
+
+<p>She surveyed him wistfully. "Oh, must you really go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. There's the old man with the pneumonia, and the girl with
+appendicitis, and the new baby at the hospital&mdash;I can't neglect them,
+Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>"When we are married," she asked, tremulously, "will all these sick
+people keep you from me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A doctor belongs to his patients, my dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he does," pensively, "but I shall be terribly jealous of your
+old men with the pneumonia, and your girls with appendicitis. I shall
+want you."</p>
+
+<p>If she had hoped to please him by her frank avowal she failed, for he
+stood looking at her with an expression which made her say hastily,
+"Don't you want me to want you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering if I could make you happy."</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little musical note of protest. "I am the happiest girl in
+the world, except&mdash;oh, if mother could only know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With a quick change of mood, she was sobbing in his arms. The masses of
+her hair lay soft against his lips, one slim white hand crept to touch
+his cheek. He imprisoned the small hand in his. "We must have a ring for
+this soon," and she shifted her head so that she could look up at him
+from under wet lashes. "Oh," she said, "shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. What shall it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything but pearls; they mean tears, you know."</p>
+
+<p>With a quick throb of the heart, he remembered that Diana always wore
+pearls. Was there something after all in the old superstition, and were
+the rest of Diana's days to be dreary because she had chosen the wrong
+jewels?</p>
+
+<p><i>Diana, Diana, Diana</i>, would his mind never leave her?</p>
+
+<p>Then as if his thought had brought her, he heard her voice upon the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come up? I rang, but no one answered."</p>
+
+<p>"The bell is broken." He hurried out into the hall, and watched her
+ascend, with her arms full of white lilacs, her gray eyes shaded by a
+white veil thrown back from a broad hat, and around her throat the
+inevitable string of pearls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've come to bring some of my flowers to your little Betty child, and
+to get her answer to my note."</p>
+
+<p>She was smiling now, smiling at him, and at Bettina, who had come
+forward timidly.</p>
+
+<p>Diana laid the lilacs on the table, and drew the girl into her arms.
+"When shall it be, my dear? It seems such a perfect plan to me. The big
+house isn't finished. You can't go into it until fall, and I can help
+you get things ready. What do you think, Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I'll leave it to your wisdom."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am sure it will be best," she responded cheerfully, "and now,
+why not to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't anything to wear," Bettina stated, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a sewing woman at the house, and Sophie and I have brought lots
+of things from Paris."</p>
+
+<p>"Really? And will you tell me all about your trip?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie will tell you. She's the talker. I like to listen&mdash;Anthony knows
+that."</p>
+
+<p>If she had meant to stab him by reviving old memories, she succeeded.
+How he had missed the responsiveness which had spurred him on to talk
+his best only his hurt heart knew. It had been her be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>lief in him, which
+had supplemented his ability, and had brought him success, and he knew
+it and she knew it, and now Bettina was to try to play that inspiring
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing of his thought showed, however, in his impassive countenance. He
+stood up and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"My old man with the pneumonia is waiting," he said, "and you'll want to
+visit a bit with Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's one thing," he continued hurriedly "that I'd like to speak
+of before I leave&mdash;to have settled. Do you think it will be wise to make
+a public announcement of our engagement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" sharply.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina glanced from one to the other, conscious of some undercurrent of
+feeling which she did not share.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just this way," said Anthony, slowly; "if Bettina could meet your
+friends and mine, under your auspices, chaperoned by you, they would
+discover her charms and loveliness," he smiled at the girl, "and they'd
+then welcome her with open arms. Now she knows none of them; it would be
+only on your account that she would be received, not upon her own, and I
+think she'd like the other better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> Diana. What do you think, Bettina?"
+he asked. "It is for you to say."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, who was making a tiny white nosegay of lilacs to pin on
+Anthony's coat, turned to them a sparkling countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Me&mdash;does it matter? Does anything matter except that I am going to
+marry you, Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>She held out her hands to him, laughing over her shoulder at Diana. With
+her flower face, her hair of gold, her figure slim and swaying like a
+lily on its stem, she was radiantly, almost impertinently young, and,
+with a sudden sense of age and weariness, Diana buried her face in the
+lilacs to hide a whiteness which matched their own.</p>
+
+<p>But she had not been quick enough to escape the keen eyes of Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped Bettina's hands. "I'll stop to-morrow morning, child, on my
+way to the sanatorium, and take you over."</p>
+
+<p>"And dine with us later," said Diana. "I'm going to have a lot of
+people. It will be a sort of impromptu housewarming. I've telephoned
+about a dozen old friends."</p>
+
+<p>"But I haven't anything to wear." Bettina was again in a panic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You'll have about twelve hours to get ready," Diana comforted; "we can
+do a lot in that time."</p>
+
+<p>But her mind was not on clothes, for she followed the doctor out into
+the hall to say, "She's just sweet, Anthony&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," suddenly all the calm of his fine face was broken up, "don't,
+Diana&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then Bettina came out with the little nosegay of white lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>"You were going away without it," she said reproachfully to the doctor,
+who was half-way down the stairway.</p>
+
+<p>"Throw it to me and I'll catch it," he called.</p>
+
+<p>But she ran after him and pinned it on and dropped a hasty kiss in the
+midst of its fragrance, and ran up again, blushing.</p>
+
+<p>And Diana watched the little scene from the top of the stairs and
+wondered if she had overestimated her own power to endure.</p>
+
+<p>The two women, standing at the window high up in the hallway, saw the
+doctor depart, then Diana said, suddenly, "Betty, dear, must you wear
+black?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl's lip trembled.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;mother&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know. But, dearie, it wouldn't make her any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> happier to see you so
+somber. And there's white for you, and all the pale, pretty tints, and
+you wouldn't be too gay, nor sadden others."</p>
+
+<p>"But your friend, Mrs. Martens," said Bettina, eagerly; "Anthony pointed
+her out to me this afternoon&mdash;she passed here on her way to the
+post-office, and she was in deep mourning&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie's life is all behind her; yours is ahead of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it seem like&mdash;forgetting?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can never forget. But when you come to me there will be young
+people, and I want you to share their life. Shall we call it settled,
+and plan a white dress for to-morrow night?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana had a fashion of calling things settled, and of bringing others to
+her point of view. Bettina had no sense of injury, but only boundless
+confidence in the decisions of the wonderful woman creature who was to
+fill her life with gladness.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be twelve of us to-morrow night," she sketched rapidly.
+"Anthony and you and Sophie and I will make four, then there will be two
+comfortable married couples, and Justin Ford, who is flying his
+hydro-aeroplane over the harbor, and Bobbie Tucker, who has his yacht in
+com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>mission, and Sara Duffield, whom you won't care for, because she is
+a bit of a snob, and Doris Sears, who is sweet and girlish and about
+your age.</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie and I have picked out the dress you are to wear," she continued.
+"I think you are just about Sophie's size, and there's an embroidered
+white, very sheer and fine, with a round low neck and short sleeves, and
+a girdle of amethyst, and silk stockings and satin slippers of the same
+color. I'm not sure whether the slippers will fit, but I fancy that a
+bit of cotton tucked into the toes would make them all right.</p>
+
+<p>"And I want you to wear your hair like I saw the girls in Paris&mdash;curled
+over your ears with a soft fringe&mdash;you'll look adorably young, Betty,
+and so dear and sweet."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's cheeks were brilliant with excitement. "Why, it doesn't seem
+true. Two days ago I was like Cinderella sitting in the ashes, and now
+I'm a fairy princess, and you are the fairy godmother."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I, my dear?" Diana spoke absently; her eyes were on a wonderful
+piece of lace, which, framed quaintly against a background of velvet,
+hung above a cabinet in the corner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get that collar, Bettina?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It was one of the things that belonged to father's family," the girl
+explained. "You know he was an Italian, a Venetian&mdash;and mother would
+never let me wear the collar or the old jewels. There's a queer ring.
+I'm going to give it to Anthony for a wedding ring."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke the last words with a charming hesitation, then went to the
+little cabinet in the corner and unlocked a drawer. Within was a carved
+box which when opened showed a massive golden circlet.</p>
+
+<p>"Dad wore it," said Bettina, "on his little finger, but his hands were
+fat. Anthony's fingers are slim, and he can fit it on the third finger.
+If he can't get it on the third finger, he shan't wear it."</p>
+
+<p>Diana stared at her in surprise. "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it would remind me of Dad," said Bettina, "and I hated Dad."</p>
+
+<p>Here was a new phase of a nature which Diana had judged gentle and
+yielding.</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear," she protested, "surely he was your father."</p>
+
+<p>"He broke mother's heart," said Bettina, obstinately; "he loved so many
+times, and there's only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> one love that is worth while, and people who
+can go from one person to another aren't worth thinking about."</p>
+
+<p>It was the judgment of a child ignorant of life, but so aptly did her
+condemnation fit in with Sophie's words of the night before, that Diana
+drew a sharp breath. "Perhaps he was only mistaken," she said; "perhaps
+he didn't understand until it was too late what he had lost."</p>
+
+<p>"He should have understood. I don't want to be harsh&mdash;he was my father,
+and I wouldn't talk this way to every one. But suppose Anthony treated
+me the way my father treated mother. Suppose he told me he loved me, and
+then&mdash;some day, I found that he cared&mdash;for some one else. What would you
+think of him then&mdash;what would you think of Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>As she brought her argument to a triumphant close, Diana put up her
+white-gloved hands as if to ward off a blow, then she said, a little
+breathlessly, "Don't let Anthony wear the ring&mdash;not yet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, unconscious of the emotion she had roused, put the ring back in
+the box.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe I shall," she said, thoughtfully; "there's an old
+superstition that a ring worn by an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> inconstant person carries
+inconstancy with it&mdash;and while I don't believe it&mdash;it would make me
+uncomfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"It would&mdash;indeed," was Diana's fervent confirmation.</p>
+
+<p>She was still shivering with the shock of the girlish outburst.</p>
+
+<p>"She loves him," she said to herself in dismay. "She really loves him."</p>
+
+<p>She rose and laid her hand on Bettina's shoulder. "Forget to be unhappy
+while you are with me, Betty, dear. You are going to be very gay&mdash;and,
+oh, so very, very young&mdash;&mdash;" She bent and kissed her. "And now, I want
+you to do two things for me;&mdash;first, you must call me Diana&mdash;and second,
+you must believe that I am really your friend. If I ever do anything to
+make you doubt, remember this, that in my heart is just one wish, to
+help my old friend Anthony to happiness&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed softly, her head up, her eyes shining. "You can't make
+him much happier than he is," she said; "it may sound awfully conceited,
+but I think he's happy&mdash;because he's going to marry me&mdash;Diana."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>IN WHICH BETTINA DANCES</h3>
+
+
+<p>Diana's house, set high on the rocks, hung over the harbor. In the
+quaint old town, front doors became back doors, kitchens looked out on
+the street, and the windows of living-rooms and dining-rooms faced the
+sea. But there were two seasons when the rocky and ignored gardens of
+the town were ablaze with beauty&mdash;in the lilac month of the spring, and
+in the dahlia month of the fall.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the time of lilac bloom that Bettina came to make her
+wonderful visit to Diana, and, after an exciting day in which she had
+been swept from the hands of the dressmaker to the hands of the
+hair-dresser, thence to Sophie for inspection and to Diana for
+confirmation of the completeness of her attire, she found herself,
+arrayed in all her glory, alone in the wide hallway.</p>
+
+<p>The door was open at the end which faced the town, and the fragrance of
+the lilacs poured in. The soft wind swayed the branches of the bushes so
+that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> seemed to float like white and purple clouds against a
+background of blue.</p>
+
+<p>On the step sat Peter Pan, and as Bettina came toward him he rose to
+meet her and together they went down the path.</p>
+
+<p>It was there in the old garden that Justin and Bobbie came upon her.
+They were in the white flannels and blue coats which Diana's informality
+permitted. The insignia on Bobbie's cap proclaimed him a yachtsman.</p>
+
+<p>Justin, having presented Bobbie, smiled straight into Bettina's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"To think of finding you here," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"How is your hand?" was her practical question.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Anthony cured it. I was able to fly yesterday over the harbor. When
+are you going to fly with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never." Bettina shivered with apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you'd like it," broke in Bobbie, eagerly. "I've been up with
+him, and it's like floating on a sea of sunshine. I give you my word the
+sensation is delightful."</p>
+
+<p>Justin said no more on the subject. He could wait, but some day he was
+going to fly with this little golden girl. He wondered who had been
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>spired to dress her in that white and amethyst combination. She was
+as flower-like as the lilacs themselves&mdash;she belonged to them; she was
+exquisite.</p>
+
+<p>He walked beside her, content to let Bobbie monopolize the conversation,
+which was unusual, for Justin liked to be the center of things. He had
+always been the center of things, and he was not diffident, as a rule,
+in his approaches toward friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"The funny thing about this place," Bobbie was saying, "is that you have
+to pass the kitchen door to get to the front. When I was a little boy
+Delia used to roll out cookies on that table by the window, and I'd sit
+on the step and wait for them."</p>
+
+<p>"Delia's a dear," said Bettina. "I fell in love with her the minute I
+came. And I fell in love with Peter."</p>
+
+<p>Peter, hearing his name, jumped down from the stone wall, where he had
+been watching the robins, and again joined them.</p>
+
+<p>"Peter and I are old friends," said Bobbie, and stopped to pet him.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are going to stay with Diana?" Justin asked.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina nodded. "Yes. Isn't she wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful. It's a pity we aren't a monarchy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> so that Diana could rule
+as a queen. She's that kind of woman. A man instinctively looks up to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what Anthony says."</p>
+
+<p>Marveling somewhat at her familiar use of the name of the distinguished
+surgeon, Justin replied, "Oh, of course, Anthony thinks she's perfect.
+He'll marry her some day."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina's startled glance questioned him. "What makes you say that? He
+won't, of course, but what makes you say it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it would be such a perfect arrangement. They are so well
+matched."</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't be perfect at all. People who are alike never ought to
+marry. And, anyhow, they've never thought of such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because they are not in love. Any one can see that who sees them
+together. They are just good friends&mdash;and friendship is a very different
+thing from love."</p>
+
+<p>Justin stared at her in amazement for a moment, then he threw back his
+head and laughed. "Oh, wise young woman," he said, "talk to me some more
+of love&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who's talking of love?" asked Bobbie, coming up.</p>
+
+<p>"Bobbie doesn't think of anything else," said Justin; "only he's never
+sure of its object. Last month it was Sara, and now it is Doris&mdash;next
+week it will be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Next week," said Bobbie, firmly, "it will be Doris,&mdash;and the next and
+the next&mdash;and always&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>They were on the porch now&mdash;the wide porch with its rugs and low wicker
+chairs, its gay striped awning and its bowls of white and purple lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie was waiting for them, and Justin greeted her with all the light
+carelessness gone from his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear lady, it is good to see you again, but hard to see this," and his
+eyes went to her black gown.</p>
+
+<p>Her lips were tremulous. "I know. But when I meet people who knew him,
+it does not make me sad; it makes me glad because all of his friends are
+my good friends."</p>
+
+<p>"There are two men whom I always place side by side as peers; one is
+Anthony Blake and the other your husband. The surgeon and the
+scientist&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "and they never met. But Diana knew him&mdash;and loved
+him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And she loves&mdash;Anthony&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martens gave him a startled look. "Hush," she said. "Oh, no, you
+mustn't think that."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she doesn't realize," he said, slowly, "but the world can see
+it with half an eye. And everybody knows Anthony's devotion."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped short as Diana appeared in the doorway. She wore white lace,
+with a crescent of pearls set just above the parting of her dark hair.</p>
+
+<p>Justin was on his feet in a moment. "Diana, the huntress," he said. "You
+shouldn't appear like that suddenly on a moonlight night unless you want
+to be worshiped as a goddess&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Diana laughed. "Please don't call me 'the huntress' again. It has a sort
+of 'woman still pursued him' sound."</p>
+
+<p>Justin, with Diana, was his light mocking self. With Bettina he had been
+self-conscious, with Sophie tenderly sympathetic&mdash;but Diana played up,
+as it were, to his boyish attitude of adoration.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we all here but Anthony?" she asked, with her eyes sweeping the
+length of the porch where the guests had gathered. "He's probably
+looking after somebody with appendicitis, or with a broken arm&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, he isn't." Bettina spoke with the assurance of direct knowledge.
+"This time it is a man's nose; it had to be sewed up."</p>
+
+<p>She shivered as she said it, and her audience roared.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad it's not Bobbie's nose," said Justin, "it's the only really
+handsome feature he possesses isn't it, Doris?"</p>
+
+<p>The blushing Doris murmured inarticulately. She thought Bobbie
+beautiful, and wondered why any one should designate his nose so
+explicitly.</p>
+
+<p>Diana regretted that she had not warned Bettina against such assumption
+of intimacy with Anthony. If people were not to know of the engagement,
+it was not well&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But Anthony had come, perfectly groomed, from the tips of his white
+shoes to the top of his head, and presently he was bending over her
+hand, and saying, pleasantly, "It's a jolly lot of us you've got
+together, Di. Did I keep you waiting?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you had, it wouldn't be me, but Delia, to whom you'd have to
+apologize. She's the real head of the house, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Justin took Bettina out, Anthony took Sophie, and one of the married men
+Diana. At the table Bettina<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> sat between the other married man and
+Justin, much to her discomfort, for she craved the seat next to the
+doctor, where perchance she might slip her fingers into his; he seemed
+so far away, and they were all strangers.</p>
+
+<p>But no one could be shy with Justin. "Of course we're going to be great
+friends," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina eyed him doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Here at least was no meek surrender to his charms, and Justin girded
+himself for the flirtation.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm Diana's friend," he ventured.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that reason enough?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I like to choose my friends for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you choose me?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled up at him. "Of course; don't be silly."</p>
+
+<p>After that they got on famously. Justin exerted himself to please, and
+Bettina, with shining eyes, laughed softly in response to his clever
+wit.</p>
+
+<p>Sara Duffield watched and wondered. Justin had of late seemed her
+especial property. Yet she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> heard him offer to take this strange
+young woman in his aeroplane, and he had never taken Sara.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is she?" Sara asked of Bobbie, who was next to her.</p>
+
+<p>"A friend of Diana's. She has been looking after her sick mother for a
+year. Then Mrs. Dolce died, and Diana asked the girl here. She's a
+beauty, isn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sara, who, in certain shimmering greens and blues, looked
+like a shining little peacock, an effect which was further emphasized by
+a slender feather caught by an emerald which she wore in her black hair.
+"Where did she live before she came to Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the top of the Lane mansion."</p>
+
+<p>"The Lane mansion." Sara's tone was scornful. "But it's an awful old
+place&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy they didn't have much money. But she doesn't need it, not with
+that face."</p>
+
+<p>"Doris had better look out," said Sara, unpleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Doris?" Bobbie's round young face grew red. "Doris is the last one,
+Sara, and there won't be any other. You and Justin can just let that
+subject alone."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sara shrugged her shoulders, and returned to her survey of Bettina. "I
+wonder where she got that stunning gown, if she's so poor. It's straight
+from Paris."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you women," Bobbie exploded, and rested his eyes on Doris, across
+the table, and the thought of her gentleness was like soothing balm in
+contrast to Sara's sharpness.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner Diana sang. She sat at the piano, which was placed just
+within the door of the unlighted music room, and her guests grouped
+themselves on the porch outside.</p>
+
+<p>She gave them, first, a little German serenade, then a gay bit of Paris
+music-hall frivolity, and finally her fingers strayed into the
+accompaniment of a song which she had written for Anthony. It was called
+"The Wind From the Sea," and it had a haunting refrain.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/music_score.png" width="600" height="248" alt="Music_score" title="Music_score" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Diana's thrilling voice rose and fell with the beating cadences. She had
+sung the song for Anthony on the night before she sailed for Berlin, and
+when she had finished he had made once more his insistent plea, and she
+had said, "Wait."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, next to Anthony, in a corner of the porch, had had a rapturous
+moment when he had murmured, "How lovely you are to-night," and had laid
+his hand over hers in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>But as Diana sang, her joy was suddenly shadowed. Why was Diana singing
+things that seemed to drag the heart out of one, and why had Anthony
+taken his hand away, and why was he so still?</p>
+
+<p>Even as she questioned the search-light from the little ferry that plied
+between the Head and the Neck sent a shaft of blinding radiance across
+the harbor. Bettina caught a glimpse of her lover's face, and of the
+longing look in his eyes as they rested on Diana.</p>
+
+<p>Why did Anthony look at Diana like that?</p>
+
+<p>As the insistent question obsessed her, Bettina was conscious of no
+feeling of jealousy. Her faith in Anthony made impossible any thought
+that his heart was not wholly hers. She merely coveted the look in his
+eyes as they rested on another woman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course it's just the way she sings," she told herself, restlessly.
+"Why, it almost makes me cry."</p>
+
+<p>The music ceased abruptly, and Diana sat very still in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>It was Sophie's voice which broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Betty, dear, haven't you a song for us?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," came the response from the far corner. "Dad sang. I can only
+dance."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" Justin was on his feet at once. "If you'll dance, we will
+light all the candles in the music room."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina came forward. "It's an interpretive dance. Can you play the
+'Spring Song,' Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie, observing anxiously, wondered what further test would try her
+friend. But she saw no sign of an emotion which had to do with a night
+when Diana had waited in the moonlight for the lover who belonged to
+another woman, as with firm touch she played the first chords of the
+rippling melody.</p>
+
+<p>And Bettina danced.</p>
+
+<p>Justin, watching her, thought of lilacs blown by light breezes, of
+clouds on a May morning, of the drift of white petals from blossoming
+trees. Was she a woman or a wraith, this slender thing swaying in the
+candle-light?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Anthony watched, too, leaning back, tired, in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>Diana watched, and asked herself, "Can any man resist such youth and
+beauty?"</p>
+
+<p>And Sophie watched, and said to herself, out of the pity of her great
+and loving heart, "She is such a child&mdash;and things are going to be hard
+for her."</p>
+
+<p>When Bettina finished, she went straight back to Anthony. "Did you like
+it?" she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>But his answer was lost in the applause which forced her to face the
+rest of them, and explain:</p>
+
+<p>"Dad taught me. He loved beauty, and he felt that the dance was beauty
+in motion."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit here by me," urged Justin, in a wheedling tone, and placed a chair
+for her.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina yearned wistfully for her corner and Anthony, but Sara was there
+now, and her light hard laugh floated out to them.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'm tired," said Bettina, as she dropped into the chair, and
+Justin, the much sought after Justin, looked at her with chagrin.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you tired of me?" he asked in an injured voice.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. "No&mdash;but it's been an exciting day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Somewhere back in the house the telephone rang, and presently Delia came
+out for the doctor. "You're wanted at the Neck, sir," she said; "it's
+the old gentleman with the pneumonia."</p>
+
+<p>As Anthony went to answer the call, the other guests said their
+farewells.</p>
+
+<p>Justin reproached Bettina. "You haven't been a bit good to me; if I come
+again will you talk to me?"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina smiled. "I'll let you talk to me."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned to Sophie. "When shall I let him come?"</p>
+
+<p>"He'll see you to-morrow on Bobbie's boat," said Sophie; "he wants us
+for lunch&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Till to-morrow, then," said Justin, and bent over her hand; then he ran
+down the porch steps to Sara, who was waiting with her head held high.</p>
+
+<p>When Anthony came back from the telephone Bettina said, mournfully, "Now
+you must go, and I haven't talked to you for a single minute."</p>
+
+<p>He looked down into the wistful face, and hesitated, then he asked,
+"Would you like to ride with me over to the Neck? It won't take long,
+but you'd have time to tell me all about your beautiful day."</p>
+
+<p>She was radiant at once.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course I can go."</p>
+
+<p>"Take my cloak," said Sophie; "the long black one; it's warmer, and the
+air is cool."</p>
+
+<p>Diana, returning from a conference with Delia, asked, "Where's Betty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone for a little ride with Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Sophie, what will people say&mdash;at this hour?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told her to wear my black cloak," said Sophie; "it's less
+conspicuous, and she was so eager."</p>
+
+<p>Diana stood very still in the darkness. How she coveted the intimacy of
+the little car! She had ridden so often with Anthony, and he never
+talked so well as when driving; he never revealed so fully the depth and
+fineness of his great nature. Would he reveal himself to Bettina? Would
+he? And was she shut out from his life forever?</p>
+
+<p>She went up-stairs slowly. "You wait for them, Sophie," she said. "I'm
+tired&mdash;it's been a hard day&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor dear." Sophie stood looking up at her from the foot of the stairs.
+"I'll come up and rub your head presently."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't my head," Diana answered over her shoulder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor dear," said Sophie again, softly, and saw with anxious eyes the
+droop of the ascending figure in the white gown.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Bettina came.</p>
+
+<p>"We rode across the causeway, and down the shore drive. It was beautiful
+and Anthony is going to take me again. It's been such a lovely, lovely
+day, Mrs. Martens."</p>
+
+<p>All the doubts of the early evening had been swept away, and Bettina was
+triumphantly happy.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the second floor, she stopped outside of Diana's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, dear lady," she called softly, with her lips against the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," came faintly, then after a moment, "dear child."</p>
+
+<p>But Diana did not open the door.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>"FOR EVERY MAN THERE IS JUST ONE WOMAN"</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Sophie, having donned a smoke-gray kimono and brushed her shining
+hair, went down to Diana, she expected to find her pensive. She found
+her, instead, with various little white jars and silver bottles set
+before her on her dressing table.</p>
+
+<p>"When a woman takes to cold cream, Sophie," she remarked, as her friend
+came in, "it's a deadly sign. It shows that she has found her first
+wrinkle."</p>
+
+<p>"Diana, how can you! You know that you are beautiful without such aids."</p>
+
+<p>"When I was in Paris," Diana continued, "I was persuaded into buying
+these. I was told that they held the secret of perpetual youth."</p>
+
+<p>"Perpetual youth is from the heart, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Then my heart is as old as the ages."</p>
+
+<p>Diana was gazing into the mirror, which reflected her tired face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't think of anything but that child, dancing in the candle-light.
+Oh, youth, youth, Sophie; is there anything like it in the whole wide
+world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Diana," Sophie's voice was sharpened by her solicitude, "come away from
+that mirror."</p>
+
+<p>Diana obediently turned her back on her dressing table, and presently
+she said, "I wonder if it was wise to have her here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bettina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie was thoughtful. "I'm not sure. Yet it seemed to me to-night that
+perhaps&mdash;you had been wise&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What made you think that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony's face when you played, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Diana crossed the room and dropped down on the rug at her friend's
+feet. "Tell me how he looked," she said, softly, with her arm outflung
+across the other's knees.</p>
+
+<p>"It was just in a flash that I saw his face&mdash;under the search-light from
+the ferry. It was the face of a man who had lost the one woman in the
+world for him, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"If I could believe that," said Diana, tensely, "nothing else would
+matter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yet, believing it, how can it be right for him to marry some one else?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana, with her chin propped between her hands, stared with wide eyes
+into space. "It isn't right&mdash;but she loves him, Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet she's not the one woman&mdash;oh, what a muddle, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"What a muddle," and for a time they sat in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Then Sophie said, "Perhaps it's because I was so happy in my
+marriage&mdash;that I can see so clearly. I've worked it out this way,
+dearest, dear&mdash;that in all the world there's just one woman for one man.
+If he meets and marries her, no matter how hard their life may be, they
+will be drawn together, not separated, by the hardness; no matter how
+the world may use them, they will cling together against the world. But
+when a man marries the wrong woman, he goes through life a half-man,
+crippled in mind and spirit, because of his mistake. Sometimes the man
+finds the one woman in a second marriage; sometimes he finds her too
+late; sometimes he is too blind to know that she is the one woman, and
+he lets her go, to discover afterward that no other can fill his life.
+That's the pity of it. If Anthony marries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> Bettina, she will know some
+day&mdash;that she is&mdash;the wrong woman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Diana rose and moved restlessly about the room. "But she's so slim and
+white and young&mdash;and no man can resist that sort of thing long. She has
+youth to give him, Sophie, and I, why, soon I'll be middle-aged."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;oh, Diana&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Diana's laugh had a sob in it. "Well, I shall be."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll never be anything but lovely&mdash;when you're an old lady you'll be
+stately and distinguished, and your eyes will shine like stars, and men
+will still fall in love with you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sophie, you're such a comfort&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next morning Delia sent up three breakfasts on trays.</p>
+
+<p>"If it wasn't for that pretty child," she said to little Jane Trefry,
+who helped her in the kitchen, "there wouldn't be any satisfaction in
+getting things ready. Miss Sophie has learned foreign ways and wants
+rolls and coffee, and Miss Diana wants grape fruit. I don't know what's
+the matter with her appetite; she hasn't eaten enough for a bird since
+she came, and yet that first night she said to me, 'Oh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> Delia, I'm just
+dying for some of your good New England cooking!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe she's in love," said little Jane, who was romantic.</p>
+
+<p>Delia turned her omelette deftly. "Of course she is. Everybody knows she
+just about worships Dr. Blake, only she won't marry him till she gets
+good and ready. That's the house he's building for her&mdash;up the road,
+with the red-tiled roof and the wide stone porches. He had the window of
+her room toward Minot's, so that the light could say, 'I love you' to
+her at night."</p>
+
+<p>"She'd better look out," stated little Jane, with provincial frankness;
+"if she waits too long he'll be finding some one else to say 'I love
+you' to."</p>
+
+<p>"You keep your mind on that toast," Delia was dishing up the omelette,
+"and don't you forget that Miss Diana isn't the kind that a man goes
+back on. She could have had a dozen richer men than the doctor. But she
+didn't want them, and maybe she doesn't want him, but don't you get it
+into your head that he wants anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>Little Jane sniffed. "You can't tell about men," she said, as she went
+out of the door with Bettina's tray.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bettina, sitting up in bed, welcomed little Jane with enthusiasm. She
+ate everything from strawberries to omelette with a hearty appetite,
+then she lay comfortably, looking out toward the eastern horizon where
+the smoky streak of a steamer showed faintly.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Sophie came in with a gown of white serge&mdash;of simple lines,
+with wide collar and cuffs of sheer embroidered muslin. "Diana insisted
+that I should get some white things in Paris," she said, as she laid it
+over a chair. "She hoped that I might be induced to dress in something
+besides black, but I can't, and so I am sure that you will be willing to
+wear these out for me, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina put one bare foot on the floor, then the other, then she
+fluttered across the room like a white butterfly and embraced Mrs.
+Martens.</p>
+
+<p>"It's lovely, only it doesn't seem quite right for me to take
+everything."</p>
+
+<p>"It is right. They would lie in my trunks until they were out of
+fashion. There's a white felt hat that goes with this, and a long white
+coat, and Diana is going to take you over to town this morning to get
+white shoes and gloves and a veil."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I thought we were to lunch on Bobbie Tucker's yacht."</p>
+
+<p>"We were&mdash;but Bobbie has just telephoned that his yacht has to go to the
+yard for repairs&mdash;something happened last night&mdash;so Justin will take us
+for a ride."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Bettina. "Mr. Ford?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Justin has put his car at our disposal. He'll drive us to-day, but
+when he can't there's the chauffeur&mdash;it's very kind of him."</p>
+
+<p>"He's awfully good looking," said Bettina in a cool little voice, "but
+don't you think he's terribly conceited, Mrs. Martens?"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie nodded. "He's been spoiled. But back of it all he's a man. His
+lightness is on the surface. I know, for he was in Berlin when my
+husband was living. I saw the other side then. He was poor; it was
+before he came so unexpectedly into his uncle's money. You know the old
+man and his son were drowned in a dreadful accident. Justin was studying
+aviation when we first knew him. He lived in shabby rooms, and ate at
+shabby little places, and he used to come in the afternoons to call on
+me, and I'd fill him up with thick bread and butter and coffee, and we'd
+talk for hours of America. He was lonely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> poor lad, and I was like a big
+sister. I shall never forget one bitter cold afternoon, when he came in
+with his hands all red and rough, and with a hoarse cough, and I had the
+maid bring him a bowl of soup hot from the kitchen, and he tried to make
+a joke of it, but his voice broke, and presently he said, 'Dear big
+sister, some day I can thank you, but not now.'</p>
+
+<p>"And when my husband died," she went on, softly, "he did thank me in a
+most generous way. He had just received his fortune when he heard of
+my&mdash;trouble. He sent a wonderful cross to mark where my husband
+sleeps&mdash;and I could have afforded only a little stone&mdash;and there are
+flowers every week, even when I am far away, and there will always be
+flowers because of his great generosity."</p>
+
+<p>Here was a background for the light-hearted young Justin which appealed
+to Bettina's imagination. "Why, how lovely," she said with her eyes
+shining; "he didn't seem like that to me. He seemed so&mdash;shallow."</p>
+
+<p>"But he isn't," Sophie defended; "if it had not been for him and for
+Diana I should have lost heart many times&mdash;the world knows Justin as a
+rich young man, ready for a good time, but I know him as the Knight of
+the Tender Heart."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How old is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-six. I didn't realize until I reached here that he was flying
+again. He does such dangerous things. I saw the aeroplane yesterday
+morning, and found out afterward that he was up&mdash;and since then my heart
+seems to stop every time I think of him in the air&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>With all the optimism of youth, Bettina tried to reassure her.</p>
+
+<p>"He said last night that he was very careful. He wants to take me up."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't ever do anything so dreadful."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't if I wanted to. Anthony made me promise last night that I
+wouldn't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She said it with a comfortable sense of her lover's care for her; "I'd
+rather ride any day with Anthony in his little car."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," Sophie said with some hesitation, "I'm going to suggest that
+except to Diana and myself, you try not to seem too much interested
+in&mdash;your doctor&mdash;the world might suspect&mdash;and you don't want to announce
+your engagement yet, Diana tells me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina shrugged her white shoulders. "I don't care if everybody knows,"
+she said; "but Diana<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> thought that Anthony's friends might like to get
+acquainted with me first. But if you could know what he's been to me,
+Mrs. Martens&mdash;why, when I waked this morning it seemed like a dream to
+think that I wasn't in the top floor of the old Lane house, with Miss
+Matthews making her breakfast coffee over an alcohol stove, and a little
+impatient because I hadn't the toast ready, and with the prospect ahead
+of me of another lonely day, when I should try to read and try not to
+think, and miss mother until I nearly died.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wonder that I love him?" She came up to Mrs. Martens and put her
+hands on her shoulders. "He's so wonderful and good&mdash;and he loves
+me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie could not meet the frank young eyes. "It's nice that you feel
+that way," she said, "and I hope you don't mind what I said&mdash;it was only
+that it might save you some future&mdash;embarrassment."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be careful," said Bettina, "only I'm perfectly sure that everybody
+will know every time I look at Anthony that he's the one man in the
+world for me. You can't imagine how uninteresting other men seem beside
+him&mdash;and then his manner, isn't it lovely and protecting and&mdash;sure?"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie had a sudden sense of the comedy which was intermingled with the
+tragic of the situation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> Diana and Bettina each harped incessantly on
+one string, "Anthony, Anthony, Anthony," and she must play listener to
+their ecstatic songs of praise.</p>
+
+<p>During the trip to town, Bettina sat beside Justin.</p>
+
+<p>"Since Bobbie's yacht is out of commission," suggested Justin, "why not
+extend our ride up the North Shore road? There's a war-ship anchored
+just off Beverly, and a tea room where we can have lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"I must stop at the sanatorium first," said Diana. "Anthony has a
+patient there who is to be operated on. She's a little young thing, and
+she's afraid, and I want to take her some lilacs. I told Jane to pick
+some and have them ready when we returned, so perhaps you'd better go
+first to our house, and then to the sanatorium, then we can do as we
+please&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A sanatorium," said Justin to Bettina, "always used to suggest vague
+horrors. But Dr. Anthony's doesn't. He has a wonderful way with his
+patients, puts their hands to work, because it's their minds that make
+them sick; they weave and make pottery. The last time I was there an
+anxious-eyed, beautifully-gowned woman was working on a rug, with three
+rabbits as a design. She was having trouble with the bunnies' ears when
+Dr. Blake came up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'I simply can't do it, doctor,' she said, and began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony stood very still for a moment, then in his quiet, strong voice,
+he said, 'Dear lady, it must be done&mdash;for your soul's sake.'</p>
+
+<p>"She looked up at him in a startled way. 'Why my soul?' she asked. 'It's
+my body that's sick.'</p>
+
+<p>"He shook his head. 'It's deeper than that,' he answered; 'you've lost
+your grip because life has never meant labor to you. The people who work
+have healthy minds and healthy bodies. Those who do not, waver between
+weakness and wickedness. That's what's the matter with society
+to-day&mdash;that's what's the matter with you. You must finish your bunnies'
+ears, therefore, for the sake of your soul&mdash;your body will respond&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"She went back to her loom," Justin continued, "with a different look on
+her face. The lines were smoothed out from her forehead. Neither of them
+had seemed to notice that I was there. It was a psychological moment
+when the doctor had to speak, and it was wonderful to hear him talk like
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina's puzzled eyes met his. "Oh, but do you think that people have
+to work to be happy?" she said. "I hate work. I like to be warm and
+com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>fortable, and have pretty clothes, and&mdash;everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you do," said Justin, responding to her mood, lightly, "but
+you don't want to get Dr. Blake after you&mdash;he preaches a gospel of
+endeavor."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" There was a note of dismay in Bettina's voice. "But not all of us
+can be bees. Some of us must be the butterflies."</p>
+
+<p>Justin spoke, somewhat seriously: "I've been a butterfly for three
+years, and I give you my word I'm not getting much out of it. Seeing
+Mrs. Martens has brought back the days when I worked over there in
+Germany to get the money to finish my studies. Has she told you how I
+used to go to her and drink her delicious coffee and eat thick bread and
+butter, and bask in her sympathy until I got the courage to go on again?
+Yet I felt all the time that I was getting somewhere, and here I'm
+stagnating&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina settled herself back comfortably in her cushioned seat. "Well, I
+don't think it's anything to worry about. It seems perfectly wonderful
+to me not to have anything to do&mdash;if I had mother back," her voice
+trembled, "I wouldn't care how much I had to work for her&mdash;but after
+she&mdash;left me, everything seemed so&mdash;so sordid, and hard&mdash;and&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>&mdash;Oh, I
+hated it&mdash;and then&mdash;&mdash;" She drew herself up sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;&mdash;?" Justin prompted her.</p>
+
+<p>"Diana came," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "and now
+everything will be different."</p>
+
+<p>Justin had a baffled sense of some mystery from the solution of which he
+was shut out, but he merely said, heartily, "I hope you'll stay
+forever," and felt his heart leap as the ends of her white veil
+fluttered against his lips.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>HARBOR LIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Anthony's sanatorium was an enlargement of an old mansion which had
+belonged to his grandfather. The wide green lawns swept down to the sea.
+There was an orchard to the left of the house, and to the right a rose
+garden, and the barn had been turned into a weaving room.</p>
+
+<p>Within the house everything was restful and harmonious. Money had been
+spent without stint to produce beauty in its most subtle expression;
+each window framed a view of sea or sky or of sunlighted trees; the
+walls, the hangings, the rugs were of that ashes-of-rose tint which give
+light to an interior without glare.</p>
+
+<p>Diana, entering, with her arms full of lilacs, was met by a nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Blake wants you at once," she said; "he's in his office."</p>
+
+<p>"Take these, Betty." Diana thrust the lilacs into the girl's arms.
+"Perhaps you'd better go back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> and sit in the car with Justin and
+Sophie, or you can wait in the reception room. I won't be long."</p>
+
+<p>But she was longer than she had anticipated. The seconds lengthened into
+minutes, and the minutes in quarters and into half hours. Justin came in
+once and found Bettina sitting stiffly on the edge of a chair with the
+flowers in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out and we'll take a spin across the causeway, while we wait," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina shook her head. "Diana said she wouldn't be long. I don't see
+what's keeping her."</p>
+
+<p>"There's that operation this morning, you know, on the girl with
+appendicitis. And Diana has always been a great help with Anthony's
+patients. He told me that when she went to Europe her loss was felt
+deeply here&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But the girl&mdash;with appendicitis?" Bettina's face was white. "Is she
+afraid&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I should be afraid. I&mdash;I don't see how Anthony can do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Operate on such a little scared thing&mdash;&mdash;" She was shivering.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't stay here," Justin insisted; "you'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> get nervous, you
+know, and all that; you really mustn't stay&mdash;you weren't made to have
+your mind on such things."</p>
+
+<p>"But Diana's mind is on them."</p>
+
+<p>"Diana is&mdash;different."</p>
+
+<p>That Diana was different was being demonstrated at that very moment in
+an upper room, where a little white slip of a girl had welcomed her with
+a wailing cry&mdash;"I'm afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," Diana bent over the bed, "there's nothing to be afraid of,
+not with your doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;if I should die."</p>
+
+<p>"You're not going to die."</p>
+
+<p>"But how do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because your good doctor has said so&mdash;and he knows&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But sometimes people do&mdash;die."</p>
+
+<p>Diana signed to the nurse to go out, and then she knelt by the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child," she said, softly, "life is such a short journey for all of
+us, and beyond is a wonder land. When I was a little girl I used to wish
+that I might die, and I thought that my lonely little soul might sail
+and sail in a silver boat until I came to the shores of that far country
+where I should find my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> father and mother waiting. I was such a dreary
+little orphan, and I wanted love. And I knew that in that country Love
+waited for me&mdash;as it is waiting for you. Would it be so hard to go after
+all the pain, if Love willed it so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hadn't thought of it that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Then think of it now. But most of all think of life, and of what it
+will mean to you when wise Dr. Blake has made you well. And think of
+this, too, that when you wake up from your long sleep there will be a
+bunch of white lilacs right here on this little table&mdash;to welcome you
+back to the world&mdash;will you promise to think of the white lilacs until
+you go to sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>She was talking against time, trying to get the tense look out of the
+girl's eyes. And now she was rewarded by the lowered lids and the
+relaxing of the little figure in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to think of the lilacs," the girl whispered. "Are you very
+sure they will be there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very sure, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm ready&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Diana, going out, met Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"She's all right," she said. "I'm glad you had me come.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She confided in me at once. She just needed her mind diverted, and I
+turned it on white lilacs. I will have a bunch for her when she wakes,
+and she is going to think of them. Is there really any danger, Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely any&mdash;and there was no choice. She couldn't live without it."</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderful that you can save life, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"In saving others I save myself, Diana. It has kept me in these later
+years from&mdash;chaos&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Something in his voice made Diana say, quickly, "Betty is down-stairs.
+Poor child, she has waited for a long time. Can you come down?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. She ought not to be here, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"She would come. I think she hoped to see you. And why shouldn't she
+come? Your work is here."</p>
+
+<p>"She isn't fitted for it. She is born for the brightness of life, not
+for its shadows. I fancy if she could see me in my operating outfit that
+she'd look upon me as something between a brute and a butcher. Poor
+child!" His laugh was grim.</p>
+
+<p>Diana's progress down the corridor partook of the nature of an ovation.
+From one room to another she went, and was welcomed by patients, many of
+whom made periodical visits to "Harbor Light"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>&mdash;which was the
+picturesque name Anthony had given his house because, as he explained,
+it was to be a beacon to such derelicts as drifted there. There were men
+and women of wealth who came to be fortified for another season of
+excitement, and there were men and women to whom the doctor gave lodging
+and his skill without financial recompense. But no one knew to whom such
+charity was extended, and all were equal in care and treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the nurses, too, had been there long enough to know the
+inspiration and uplift which was brought by the gracious lady in the
+white gown.</p>
+
+<p>When the patients asked, "Who is she?" the reply was whispered, "Diana
+Gregory. Everybody hopes she'll marry the doctor. He's dead in love with
+her."</p>
+
+<p>At last Diana slipped away, promising to come again soon to look at the
+weaving, to see the new pottery&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But not now," she insisted, brightly; "there's some one waiting for me
+down-stairs."</p>
+
+<p>She found Bettina still sitting stiffly on the edge of the chair. She
+had sent Justin back to Sophie, and a nurse had taken away the lilacs.
+All the glory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> had gone out of her morning when Anthony had asked for
+Diana.</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't he want me?" she demanded, when Diana came toward her with
+an eager apology. "Why didn't Anthony want me?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, he always wants you, but there's an operation on now."</p>
+
+<p>"On that girl with appendicitis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how can he do it, Diana? I think it's dreadful&mdash;to&mdash;to hurt
+people&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't hurt them, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's horrid. I&mdash;I hate it."</p>
+
+<p>"Betty!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I shan't ever let him talk about it to me." The child's breath was
+coming quickly. "Never&mdash;never&mdash;never, when we are married&mdash;and I'm going
+to make him give it up&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Give it up?" Diana's voice rang clear and sharp. "Give what up?"</p>
+
+<p>"His surgery. I didn't mind the other&mdash;when he came to mother and gave
+her medicine in bottles&mdash;but this is different, and the women
+here&mdash;&mdash;Why, Diana, some of them looked in at the door, and they
+were&mdash;freaks."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They're sick, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like sick things. I loved mother, and I could stand it, but
+Anthony mustn't let me see such people&mdash;not now, so soon after&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Betty! Oh, you shouldn't have come in. We'll go now and have a
+long ride with Justin, and to-night you'll see Anthony&mdash;and some day
+you'll realize what a great man he is."</p>
+
+<p>"I know he's a great surgeon, and, of course, I'll have to put up with
+it&mdash;but I shall hate it just the same, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>Put up with it&mdash;oh, Diana! For years she had urged him toward this end,
+that he might stand at the head of that profession which combats death
+with a flaming sword. For years she had watched him struggle upward, and
+had gloried, not only in his fame, but in his power of healing.</p>
+
+<p>Together the two women went down the path.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you tired of waiting?" Diana asked as they came up to the car.</p>
+
+<p>"Justin took me for a little ride," said Sophie, "and I sat in front
+with him. We tried to get Bettina to go, but she wouldn't. She thought
+she ought to wait for you."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I hadn't waited," said Bettina, as Justin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> helped her in. "I&mdash;I
+don't like sick people, and I hate that queer smell&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ether," said Justin, promptly; "it's because of the operation."</p>
+
+<p>He leaned forward, and the car shot out toward the causeway. The way led
+first through a street overarched with elms; beyond the elms there was a
+vista of sea and sky. A fragrant wind blew from the blossoming trees,
+and swept Bettina's veil away from her face so that it billowed above
+her hat like the wings of some great bird.</p>
+
+<p>The hospital was behind; ahead was the long white road. Justin was
+smiling down into her eyes. For the first time she noticed his look of
+joyous youth.</p>
+
+<p>"I begin to understand why it is that you fly," she said, as they came
+out upon the causeway and saw the stretch of harbor beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you feel that you must get up high enough to flap your wings."</p>
+
+<p>"I could do that on a barn-yard fence, couldn't I&mdash;like Chantecler, and
+make the sun rise?"</p>
+
+<p>"You could never get up early enough."</p>
+
+<p>"I flew past your window at six."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How did you know it was my window?"</p>
+
+<p>Justin glanced down at her. Her soft white hat was pulled low, so that
+it almost hid her eyes, but through the veil he could see that they were
+softly shining. Her lips were red, and her cheeks touched by the wind
+with vivid color.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew&mdash;because my heart told me," he said, ardently.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not blush. "You knew it because you know which is Diana's
+guest room," she stated.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I am never awake at six&mdash;I love to be lazy."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tell that to Dr. Anthony or he'll set you to weaving. You know
+what I told you; he said that idleness leads to weakness or
+wickedness&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't had time to see what it leads to," Bettina informed him.
+"I've always been so busy. I'm going to play for a while."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you play with me?" Justin challenged her.</p>
+
+<p>Shining eyes met shining eyes&mdash;youth responded to youth.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be glorious," said Bettina, meeting his mood.</p>
+
+<p>They laughed together, the care-free laughter of their golden age.
+Diana, catching the echo of it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> waked from a reverie which had to do
+with Anthony back there in a big, bare room, contending with skilful and
+steady hands against the evil forces which sought to destroy; saving a
+life, giving to a little unknown girl a future of hope and of health.</p>
+
+<p>Every breath that she had drawn since she had left him had been a prayer
+that his hand might not fail, that his nerves might be like steel&mdash;she
+felt as if her heart were beating with his to uphold him, as if she
+could bear him on the wings of love and be his talisman against harm.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in front of her was the girl he was to marry, laughing lightly up
+into the eyes of a boy, unconscious of her lover's need, unconscious of
+everything except that she was young and free from care&mdash;and that the
+morning world was beautiful!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EMPTY HOUSE</h3>
+
+
+<p>When the doctor came that night he was tired. The day had been a hard
+one, and he felt weighed down by the woes of those weak folk who bore so
+heavily on his strength.</p>
+
+<p>He found Bettina alone. Diana and Sophie had gone to play bridge across
+the harbor, and only Delia in the garden and Peter Pan on the porch
+remained for chaperonage.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina greeted her betrothed soberly, and held up her face to be
+kissed. "I said things about you yesterday," she confessed, as she and
+Anthony settled themselves on the porch where they could look out upon
+the lights. "I said things about you to Diana, and afterward we went to
+the Pirate House with Justin Ford for lunch, and I flirted with him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say about me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I hated your surgery&mdash;that it seemed dreadful."</p>
+
+<p>He had been smiling, but he grew grave at once.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You can't separate me from my work, child; you must take us together."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; I know that now. Diana was talking to me after we came home
+from our ride. She told me some of the wonderful things you had done,
+and of how people almost said their prayers to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite that&mdash;but it's my reward that so many of my patients are my
+friends because I have helped them."</p>
+
+<p>"And Diana said that if I loved you I'd be glad&mdash;to let you&mdash;cut people
+up."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of himself he laughed. She was irresistible.</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't exact that of you. But at least you must not worry."</p>
+
+<p>"And I won't have to live there?" anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the sanatorium?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. You'll live over there."</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to a jutting rock on the top of which a big house loomed
+white in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>"There? Oh, I'd love to go over it. Couldn't we, now?"</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated. "Perhaps it would be better to wait till there are
+others." Then, seeing her disappointment, he agreed. "Well, if Delia
+will come too."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Delia?"</p>
+
+<p>"To open the rooms." He had not the heart to tell her how sharp were the
+tongues of the gossips of the little town.</p>
+
+<p>So Delia, a little later, limped after them with Peter following,
+confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"And you flirted with Justin," Anthony remarked on the way over.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. In the little tea room. Diana and Mrs. Martens sat at one table,
+and Mr. Ford and I at the other&mdash;and he was so funny&mdash;and I&mdash;&mdash;Well,
+<i>any one</i> looking on might have thought I was in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"What did Diana think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she knows how I feel about you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And Justin, does he know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. It's not announced, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But if he should take you in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"Silly," Bettina tucked her hand in his arm, "nobody takes me in
+earnest&mdash;but you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her hesitation was charming, but he did not respond ardently, and
+perhaps she missed something in his manner, for presently she asked,
+"Are you jealous?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, no. Children must play&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She sighed a little. "Am I such a child?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He laughed again. "Of course, you're a mere baby&mdash;but a dear baby, Betty
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>And with that she was content.</p>
+
+<p>The big house was not furnished.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to put in the things which were in the old house before I
+turned it into a sanatorium. My grandfather was a sea captain, and I
+have a model of a ship carved by one of his sailors out of soup bones,
+and there are two great china tureens in the shape of swans, and some
+ivories and queer embroidered screens that I wouldn't take anything for.
+It's a sort of jumble for a modern residence, but I like it. And I have
+had the house built in a style which will be in keeping with my
+belongings. It's rocky and rugged and there's a fireplace in every room.
+I like to burn logs for cheerfulness even when there's a furnace&mdash;and to
+come home to the light of them on winter nights."</p>
+
+<p>"I love pretty new things," Bettina informed him. "May I have all white
+for my room? With ivory things on my dresser with silver monograms,
+and&mdash;white fur rugs?"</p>
+
+<p>Her room!</p>
+
+<p>It came to Anthony, with the force of a blow, that there was no room in
+the big house for Bettina.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Why, that room was Diana's&mdash;that room which looked out on Minot's. He
+had thought of her as inhabiting it. He had never meant that the great
+light should say, "I love you," to Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>For months, even when he felt that he had lost Diana, her spirit had
+seemed to dwell in the place he had planned for her. Whenever he had
+entered her room it had not seemed bare, for his imagination had filled
+it with the furniture which had been his grandmother's wedding set&mdash;the
+big canopied bed, the winged chair on the hearth, the quaint lyre-legged
+sewing table by the window. And on the other side of the hearth would be
+another chair&mdash;his own. And in that room he had seen Diana, his bride,
+in the moonlight; his wife, waiting in the winged chair to welcome him
+after a weary day.</p>
+
+<p>And now this pretty child&mdash;and Diana banished? What had he done? What
+dreadful thing had he done?</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, unconscious, said pleasant things about the living-room, the
+library, the great hall, the broad stairway&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>As yet there was no connection for lighting, so they carried candles,
+Anthony holding one aloft for himself and Bettina, and Delia coming
+after with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> taper. Peter, like a flash of flame, slipped ahead of
+Delia and was lost in the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>They went into every room on the second floor before they entered the
+one which faced Minot's. To him it was the Holy of Holies, but Bettina
+stepped in boldly.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great high-ceiled chamber with its distant corners made darker
+by the moonlight. Through the wide window which faced the south was a
+vast expanse of sky and sea. Anthony's house stood near the end of the
+harbor, so that across the causeway was the open water, a stretch of
+limitless blue.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina shivered. "It's so big and dark."</p>
+
+<p>"When it's furnished and the lights are on it will seem different."</p>
+
+<p>Delia, arriving at that moment, added her contribution to the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Diana came over yesterday. Them's her white lilacs on the shelf."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor held his candle higher. The flowers, in a great bowl of gray
+pottery, showed ghostly outlines beneath the flickering flame. To
+Anthony the air seemed thick and faint with their perfume.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go," he said to Bettina, quickly, and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> his hand on her arm
+he led her away and shut the door.</p>
+
+<p>Diana and Sophie, coming home at half-past ten, found the lovers on the
+porch, and the four talked together until Anthony said "Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>He made a professional call in a side street and found himself,
+afterward, turning toward the big empty house on the rocks. In that
+south room Diana's lilacs were wasting their sweetness, and he coveted
+the subtle suggestion they gave of her presence there.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Diana, helping Delia to lock up, asked, "Where's Peter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness knows," said Delia; "he followed me when we went over to the
+doctor's house, and I ain't seen him since."</p>
+
+<p>Diana turned and looked at her. "The doctor's house? Who went?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Anthony and Miss Betty and me. They asked me. She hadn't ever seen
+it, and he wanted to show it to her."</p>
+
+<p>Diana felt her heart stand still.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you go&mdash;into every room, Delia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So he had taken little Betty there. They had entered that room to which,
+that very morning, she had carried white lilacs, moved by some impulse
+to call it her own until some one else should have the right to claim
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll look up Peter," she told Delia, hastily. "You needn't wait for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>The town clock struck half-past eleven as she went through the
+garden&mdash;wraith-like in her long white wrap.</p>
+
+<p>"Peter," she called softly, "Peter, Peter."</p>
+
+<p>Following the path over the rocks, she came at last to the empty house.</p>
+
+<p>A faint mew sounded from within. She turned the knob, and found the door
+unlocked. "Peter," she called again, and the big cat came forth, his
+tail waving like a plume.</p>
+
+<p>Diana, facing the darkness of the great hall, felt impelled to enter, to
+slip silently up the stairs, to stand on the threshold of the
+moonlighted chamber, whence came the perfume of white lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>And as she stood there, she saw, with a sudden leap of the heart, that
+Anthony was before her. Silhouetted against the wide space of the open
+window he was looking out at the flashing light.</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand to her throat. She stepped back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> as if to escape. Then,
+swayed by an impulse which cast prudence to the winds, she spoke his
+name.</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony!"</p>
+
+<p>"Diana!"</p>
+
+<p>He had turned from the window, and was peering through the dimness. He
+came toward her. She held out her hands to keep him back.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please&mdash;no&mdash;no&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But he took her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>When he let her go his face was white.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no excuse for me," he said. "I know that. I've given my word
+of honor to that little child&mdash;who trusts me. Yet&mdash;this room belongs to
+you. Before you came to-night I touched the lilacs with my lips, and it
+seemed to me as if they were your lips&mdash;that I touched. And when I
+turned and saw you&mdash;white&mdash;like a bride&mdash;on the threshold&mdash;it was as I
+had seen you, night after night&mdash;in my dreams. You belong here and no
+other, Diana!"</p>
+
+<p>What she said in reply Diana could never remember with any great
+distinctness. She only knew that she was trying to hold on as best she
+could to the best that was within her. Anthony in this moment of
+weakness was hers. Whatever she did now would bring him to her or send
+him away&mdash;perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> forever. She struggled to think clearly&mdash;to raise
+some barrier between his awakened passion and her own wild desire to
+take what the gods had placed within easy reach of her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she found herself speaking. Her throat was dry and she was
+shaking from head to foot. But she was telling him that she had tried to
+use common sense. That she had asked Bettina to come to her hoping that
+there might be found some way out. But there <i>wasn't</i> any way out, not
+any honorable way. And she didn't dare play Fate any longer. Not after
+to-night. Not after&mdash;<i>to-night</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Her voice broke.</p>
+
+<p>"Diana&mdash;dear girl&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He put both of his strong hands on her shoulders, and so they faced each
+other in the illumined night.</p>
+
+<p>"For just one little moment," he said, "we will have the truth. If I had
+not asked Betty you would have married me, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"If there is any honorable way in which I can release myself, will you
+marry me now?"</p>
+
+<p>She had a sudden vision of the slender, lonely child in shabby black as
+she had first seen her in the shadowy room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, <i>no</i>," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because there isn't any honorable way; because I should feel little and
+mean; because it would make me think less&mdash;of you, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes met his steadily. She was as pale as the spectral lilacs, whose
+perfume floated about them. But her nervous fears were gone. She knew
+now that they would triumph&mdash;she and Anthony&mdash;that they were not to
+leave the heights.</p>
+
+<p>When at last he spoke, it was in a moved voice. "If you were less than
+you are I should not love you so much. You know that, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In the years to come, what you have been to me will be my light&mdash;in the
+darkness&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Unable to speak, she held out her hands to him. He took them, and bent
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>With a little murmured cry she released herself, and flitted away into
+the engulfing darkness. The echoes of her swift descent came whispering
+up the stairs; in the distance a door was shut. The emptiness of the
+unfinished house seemed symbolic of the future which stretched before
+him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GOLDEN AGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Justin Ford had not been unsuccessful with women. Many of them had liked
+him, and might have loved him if he had cared to make them, but until he
+met Bettina Dolce he had not cared.</p>
+
+<p>There was about Bettina, however, a certain remoteness which puzzled
+him. She responded to his advances with girlish gayety, but her cool
+sweet glance held no hint of self-consciousness, and beyond a certain
+point of light flirtation he had, as yet, dared not go.</p>
+
+<p>He pondered these things one morning as he worked on his delicate
+machine in the great shed with its wide opening toward the water.</p>
+
+<p>Why had little Bettina erected a barrier? She knew nothing of the arts
+of sophisticated coquetry, so he absolved her from any intention to
+rouse his interest. Was she unawakened? Was there another man?</p>
+
+<p>He laid down his pipe to think out that last start<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>ling proposition.
+There had been no men in her secluded life.</p>
+
+<p>Except Anthony Blake! Gracious Peter, could it be Anthony? There came to
+Justin, suddenly, a vision of Bettina in the shadowy room. Of her
+childish dependence upon the doctor, of her little claims of intimacy,
+her evident preference for the older man's society, her vehement denial
+the night of the dinner that there could be anything but friendship
+between Anthony and Diana.</p>
+
+<p>Putting, thus, two and two together, he decided that Bettina believed
+herself in love with Anthony. Yes, that was it&mdash;and Anthony&mdash;well, for
+Anthony there was just Diana!</p>
+
+<p>There you had it, and the only way to save Bettina and, incidentally,
+himself from heartbreak was to take things into his own hands, and play
+Prince to this exquisite Cinderella.</p>
+
+<p>Unconsciously his mind assumed a sort of King Cophetua attitude toward
+the charming Beggar Maid. He found himself humming:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"In robe and crown the king stept down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To meet and greet her on her way&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Justin knocked the ashes out of his pipe and put it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> in his pocket.
+There was no time like the present, and he at once went toward Diana's,
+"clothed all in leather," like the old man in the nursery rhyme.</p>
+
+<p>He found Bettina in the garden. She wore a strong little suit of blue
+serge with a crimson silk scarf knotted under her sailor collar. On her
+fair head was a shady hat. She stood by the stone wall looking
+expectantly down the road. But it was not Justin whom she expected,
+although she smiled at him, and gave him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you meet Miss Matthews?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Matthews?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know. You met her the first time you saw me."</p>
+
+<p>"I can only remember that time that I met&mdash;you."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed. "How nicely you say it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not take me seriously."</p>
+
+<p>"Does anybody take you seriously?"</p>
+
+<p>"Kind people do."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm not kind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to me&mdash;you just give me remnants and fragments of your time. I have
+hardly seen you for three days."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody has seen me," she informed him. "I've been doing all sorts of
+stunts in the shops. I was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> town yesterday with Mrs. Martens, and you
+should see my hats&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather see your hair. Do you know how lovely it is with the
+sunshine on it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Silly&mdash;wait till you see my dream of a picture hat&mdash;with yellow
+roses&mdash;to be worn with a shadow lace robe over a primrose slip."</p>
+
+<p>"White and gold&mdash;Sophie was foxy to choose that," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Foxy&mdash;why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the pinks and blues don't suit you. You need the unusual tints.
+That amethyst frock you had on the other night fitted in with the
+twilight, and the old garden and the lilacs; and in the yellow and white
+you'll be a primrose, flashing in the sun."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Martens has the most wonderful taste," she informed him. "There's
+a tea-gown of white crape with a little lace wrap&mdash;I don't know when
+I'll wear it, but Mrs. Martens insisted&mdash;and a new gown for the yacht
+club dance to-morrow night,&mdash;and you should see my shoes&mdash;five pairs of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Such richness!" He smiled into her eager eyes. "Did Diana help you
+choose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Diana's away&mdash;on business in the city. That's why I'm free to do as I
+please to-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you free to do as you please&mdash;&mdash;?" He seized his opportunity. "Then
+come up to the shed and see my air-ship. We can have a little flight
+across the harbor."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. "Oh, I can't. I have an engagement with Captain
+Stubbs and Miss Matthews. We are going fishing in the captain's boat,
+and have lunch on the rocks later."</p>
+
+<p>Justin looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then he said, "Three's a
+crowd. You ought to have four."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you asking&mdash;to be invited?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But it's Captain Stubbs' party."</p>
+
+<p>"I am perfectly sure that if you'll give me a certificate of good
+character Captain Stubbs will take me aboard."</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to be summing up the situation. "I'm not sure," she said, at
+last, "that you'd fit in&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the captain's old-fashioned, and Miss Matthews is old-fashioned,
+and I love them both, and so I don't care. But you don't love them."</p>
+
+<p>He flushed. "I see. You're afraid that I'll make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> them feel
+uncomfortable. I am sorry you should think that. I'm not quite a cad,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>There were sparks in his eyes. He wondered that he should be so angry.
+But he was desperately angry with this cool little creature who didn't
+seem to care.</p>
+
+<p>And now she was passing frigid judgment on his blazing words. "Of course
+you aren't a cad. I didn't say you were. But you aren't like Bobbie
+Tucker or Dr. Blake. They have always known these people, and they
+understand them. There are no class distinctions in a town like this,
+you know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have I seemed such a prig to you?"</p>
+
+<p>She cocked her head on one side and considered him, "Not since I talked
+to Mrs. Martens about you. She told me how nice you were in Germany."</p>
+
+<p>In Germany; ye gods! Was he nice only in <i>Germany</i>?</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her blankly. He had a feeling that he would like to shake
+her; that he would like to&mdash;kiss her.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of her conflicting emotions little Miss Matthews arrived,
+and behind her steamed Captain Stubbs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Justin, murmuring inarticulately, acknowledged the introduction to the
+captain, and greeted Miss Matthews.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews was very prim and trim in a white shirt-waist and stiff
+collar. She had a gray sweater over her arm, and a green veil was tied
+over her soft felt hat. She carried in her hand a brown Boston bag, the
+contents of which she explained to Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>"I told the captain I would bring some home-made pickles."</p>
+
+<p>Justin gave immediate attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Matthews," he said, "do you mean to say that you three will eat
+fish chowder and home-made pickles, and that I shan't be there?"</p>
+
+<p>The little captain, in a glow of hospitality, said heartily, "Now, look
+here; can't you come with us?"</p>
+
+<p>Justin showed his white teeth in a flashing smile. "It's an invitation
+that I've been fishing for all the morning, but Miss Dolce won't ask
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you want him?" the little captain demanded of Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," in the tone of one to whom it didn't really matter.
+"Perhaps he can help you with the boat, captain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Justin, carrying Miss Matthews' bag, helping the captain over with the
+supplies, lifting Bettina over the side of the boat with strong arms
+which yearned to show their strength, was in a mental attitude far
+removed from his King Cophetua mood of the earlier morning. He was at
+this moment a slave chained to Bettina's chariot wheel. And the strange
+part of it was that he gloried in his chains! He realized that he was
+going out with her on a forced invitation, but he was going! And the sea
+was like sapphire, and the sun shone!</p>
+
+<p>Little Miss Matthews, looking back afterward on that glorified fishing
+trip, was forced to confess that Justin left nothing undone for her
+which could be done. Never in her life had she been deferred to by such
+a charming youth, never had her little budget of small talk received
+such respectful consideration, never had she been waited on, hand and
+foot, by such a cavalier!</p>
+
+<p>Rarely did Justin's eyes stray to where Bettina sat beside the captain,
+chatting to him in her confiding voice, making his old heart happy by
+her interest in his sea-seasoned reminiscences.</p>
+
+<p>It was really a most altruistic performance. One might have imagined
+that for Justin there was just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> one woman in the world&mdash;Miss Matthews;
+and for Bettina, just one man&mdash;Captain Stubbs. Yet, as the little boat
+rounded the lighthouse point and came into the rougher waters outside,
+young hearts were thrilling to the sound of young voices, and the music
+of the spheres was being played to the accompaniment of beating waves.</p>
+
+<p>When at last they anchored, the fishing was really incidental. To be
+sure it was exciting, and they had an excellent catch, but Bettina's hat
+was off and Justin could see her hair. And Justin, standing up in the
+bow of the boat with his line outflung, was, in Bettina's eyes, more
+than ever like a young Olympian god.</p>
+
+<p>It was the same at lunch time. They landed on a crescent-shaped strip of
+beach, backed by rocky walls, where there was plenty of driftwood for
+their fire. There the captain gave his mind to the making of chowder,
+and Miss Matthews rendered expert service in the cutting up of onions
+and potatoes, and in the frying of salt pork.</p>
+
+<p>Justin opened the pickle bottle and did other prosaic and ungodlike
+acts, and Bettina laid the table on the sands like a real girl instead
+of a transported nymph, yet each saw the other through a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> golden haze
+which magnified the most trivial act and made it important.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, when Bettina set four blue bowls at exact geometric distances on
+the cloth, Justin thought not of the bowls, but of Bettina's slim white
+hands; and likewise Justin, gathering driftwood, commended himself to
+Bettina not for his industry, but for his swinging walk and square
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>For several days Bettina had been heavy-hearted. She had not seen
+Anthony. He had called her up over the telephone, and had made his
+excuses; there was the little girl with the appendicitis and the old man
+with the pneumonia&mdash;how Bettina hated the repetition. He would come and
+see her as soon as possible, he promised, but he had not come.</p>
+
+<p>Diana, too, had not been like herself. On the morning after Bettina's
+visit to Anthony's house she had not appeared until luncheon. She had
+looked like a ghost, and had been very busy all the afternoon. She had
+hinted at affairs which would take her to town for a time, and finally
+she had gone away. Even Mrs. Martens had seemed disturbed and restless.
+Hence Bettina had welcomed the invitation from Captain Stubbs. Justin's
+high spirits, his evident delight in her society, his anger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> at her
+rebuffs&mdash;these things soothed and flattered her. Above all there was the
+charm of his glorious youth. She found herself swayed to his mood. Might
+she not for one little fleeting moment dance to the tune that he piped?</p>
+
+<p>Letting herself go, therefore, she was at luncheon bewildering in her
+beauty. Justin's mocking eyes grew tender as he watched her. Here was no
+pretty Beggar Maid for masculine condescension, but rather a little
+goddess to be put on a pedestal and worshiped.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews, unconscious of the forces which were
+charging the air about them, ate their chowder and took their enjoyment
+placidly.</p>
+
+<p>"A fish chowder," said the little captain, "never tastes so good in the
+house as it does out-of-doors, with the cod fresh caught, and with the
+smell of the sea for sauce."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina passed her bowl for more.</p>
+
+<p>"It is delicious," she said; "everything is&mdash;lovely."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" said Justin. "There never was such a feast&mdash;there never was
+such a day&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet there had been many such days; there had been many such feasts. But
+not for them! It was the golden age of their existence. The moment of
+youth and joy, unmarred by disillusion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>STORM SIGNALS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The wind, rising, blew Miss Matthews' green veil into a long thin wisp
+which flapped toward the northwest.</p>
+
+<p>The captain, noticing it, glanced over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have a storm before we know it," he said. "It's dark enough over
+there in the south&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Above the horizon rose the clouds, black with wind; the waves began to
+murmur and run in, in long lines of white.</p>
+
+<p>"There'll be no getting back now," said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>Justin's eyes searched the land for shelter. Beyond the rocky wall was a
+hillside of hemlock, which formed part of the estate of a magnate from
+the West. Beyond the trees was a great house, shut up now, and in the
+hands of a caretaker. Nothing else seemed to offer refuge from the
+storm.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think, captain?" he asked. "Had we better try to make the
+house?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've got my oilskins," the captain said. "I'll stay here, but perhaps
+you folks had better run in."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews protested. "I've lived too long on this coast to mind a
+storm. I'll wrap up in my rubber coat and let it rain. But we'd better
+get that child in somewhere; she's scared of storms."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you?" Justin asked Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>"If there's going to be wind," she said, "I'm awfully afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll run for it," he told her; "up the hill to the house."</p>
+
+<p>As he helped her climb the rocks, they took a last glance back at the
+stolid pair who didn't mind storms. Captain Stubbs in brilliantly yellow
+new oilskins and Miss Matthews in a sad-colored waterproof coat sat side
+by side with their backs against the beached boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we should have stayed with them," said Bettina, doubtfully, as
+Justin drew her up to his level.</p>
+
+<p>But Justin had no doubts. Ahead of them was the dimness of the hemlock
+forest; the solitude of the storm. He coveted the brief moments when
+they might be alone together.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he urged, and they entered upon the darkness of the wood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As they sped along over the cushioned earth, Justin helped her strongly,
+half lifting her at times over the rough places.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid?" he asked her, and she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>With a roar and a rush the storm was upon them. For a few moments they
+were in the midst of chaos. The air was full of flying things, and the
+branches crashed and fell.</p>
+
+<p>To Bettina, emotionally tense, the real world had disappeared. She was a
+disembodied spirit, floating through infinite space with another spirit
+as joyous, as exalted, as triumphant as her own.</p>
+
+<p>When he asked her again, "Are you afraid?" and she again shook her head,
+it came to her, suddenly, that she was not afraid because she was with
+him. She felt no wonder that it was so. In this wild world there was no
+place for wonder. She and Justin were laughing madly as they raced. Her
+hair, loosed by the wind, streamed out behind her. Once it caught on a
+button of Justin's coat, and held her so close to him that, when he
+unwound it, she felt the quickened beating of his heart.</p>
+
+<p>As they again sped on, she felt as if never before had she been alive in
+such a radiant wonderful sense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid?" he asked for the third time, bending down to catch her
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"It's glorious," she panted. Then as the rain came, he shielded her with
+his arm, and shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have to make a dash through the open; here's the house ahead!"</p>
+
+<p>The great house was closed and deserted, but they found a cloistered
+porch from which they could look out on the storm.</p>
+
+<p>Below them the trees were whipped and bent by the gale. Against the
+horizon the sea rose like a great gray wall. Straining their eyes, they
+could catch a glimmer of the captain's yellow coat on the strip of sand.</p>
+
+<p>"The worst of the wind is over," said Justin; "we were lucky to escape
+the heavy rain."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, who was braiding her hair, looked up at him. "Wasn't it
+wonderful down there in the wood?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you think it wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>Something in his eyes made her say, hastily "I've never been out in a
+storm before."</p>
+
+<p>He did not reply at once. He was watching her slender fingers twist the
+shining strands.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me do that for you," he said, suddenly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, no&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because." She walked away from him, and seated herself on a marble
+bench under one of the closed windows.</p>
+
+<p>He sat down beside her. "I didn't mean that impertinently; truly I did
+not. I used to braid my little sister's hair. She was lame and I took
+care of her, and, as I watched you, I thought of&mdash;my little sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me about her."</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't much to tell, except that when I was a great hulking
+youngster, with only her to love&mdash;she died&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh,&mdash;I'm so sorry&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He went on slowly, still watching her busy fingers "Since then I have
+never had a friend. Not the kind she was. Why, she used to love to
+listen to my boy's talk&mdash;of how I was going to be great, of how I was
+going to conquer the world,&mdash;and she has been dead ten years&mdash;and I have
+done nothing."</p>
+
+<p>It was a new Justin who spoke in this fashion. To Bettina he had always
+seemed as light as air, and she had enjoyed his frivolity, but now she
+felt some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>thing more than enjoyment,&mdash;a yearning to be of use to this
+big boy who was all alone, and who missed his little sister.</p>
+
+<p>Surely to be his friend need not interfere in any way with Anthony's
+claims. She loved Anthony and was going to marry him, of course. But
+friendship and love were different things. Why, Mrs. Martens was
+married, and she had been Justin's friend in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke her thought. "But Mrs. Martens?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was a dear&mdash;but she is older than I&mdash;and I stood a bit in awe of
+her&mdash;she sympathized with me&mdash;but she could not dream with me, and I
+wanted some one to share my dreams."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina's blue eyes were wistful. What a wonderful thing it would be to
+share somebody's dreams. She was perfectly sure that she did not share
+Anthony's. He had never told her of his dreams. Perhaps he didn't have
+any. His life was so practical and full of work, and then he was
+old&mdash;oh, yes, indeed, he was older than Mrs. Martens&mdash;and Justin had
+said that Sophie was too old to understand.</p>
+
+<p>She found herself asking, "What were your dreams?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't I bore you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;please&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there was one dream which my little sister and I used to discuss
+as I braided her hair at night. It was a dream that some day I should be
+great. She had a different idea of greatness from mine, and we used to
+argue the question. I don't think she ever wanted me to be President of
+the United States or to hold high office; she wanted me to do something
+which would help humanity. She used to wish that I might preach or
+teach; she was such a good little thing. And I would tell her that none
+of these vocations were for me; I must win fame in a different way. I
+wanted to invent something which would make the world stare. Perhaps
+that's the reason I took up aviation after she died. I thought I might
+make some great advance on the inventions of other men. But the other
+men made them first, you see, and I've just frivoled and played. Yet, as
+I saw you braiding your hair, it brought back my little sister so
+vividly, and I wondered what she would think of me&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in her life her heart was stirred by the maternal
+tenderness which is the heritage of good women. Her timid hand touched
+his sleeve, lightly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am sure," said her little voice, unsteadily, "that if she knew you
+now, she would think you were&mdash;very nice."</p>
+
+<p>"You darling," he was saying in his heart, but he dared not say it with
+his lips. And he went on as calmly as he could.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could make you see my little sister as I knew her. She was
+such a pale little thing, with pale gold hair, and a little narrow face,
+and pale blue eyes. When I began to read Tennyson, I found my little
+sister again in 'Elaine'&mdash;and do you know, I was half glad she didn't
+live to grow up. Some man might have hurt her as Lancelot hurt Elaine. I
+know I haven't realized her dreams for me&mdash;but I've tried to hold on a
+bit to her ideal of goodness, and it has kept me from things which might
+have made me less of a man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was thrilled as she had never been. Justin began to loom up in her
+mind's eye as the Knight of the Tender Heart&mdash;that was what Sophie had
+called him. And how wonderful that he should be telling her all this!</p>
+
+<p>"Then," he continued, "the money came to me, and since then I've been a
+butterfly. I have not made good use of my wealth. I have needed a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+friend, you see, to help me make my dreams come true."</p>
+
+<p>He looked down at her. "Would you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Be your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I'm not good enough. I've always been a little selfish thing,
+except with mother. I loved her and I wasn't selfish with her. But I've
+wanted a good time, and I haven't cared for anything but my own
+pleasure. I'm not like your little sister, you see. I'm just a
+butterfly, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you&mdash;you're an angel," ardently.</p>
+
+<p>Again she was thrilled. Anthony had never said such things to her.
+Anthony had called her a child, and he had not needed her. And Justin
+wanted her friendship! All her awakened womanhood rose to meet his
+demand.</p>
+
+<p>So intent was she on her thought that she did not feel the cold. But her
+lips were blue, and she shivered as the wind swept around the corner.</p>
+
+<p>Justin jumped at once to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a brute to keep you here. There must be some one around the place
+who can take us in."</p>
+
+<p>He left her, to come back presently with the news that there was a man
+down at the stables, and that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> there was a fire in the harness room. He
+brought a rain coat, and wrapped her in it, scolding himself all along
+the way for his neglect of her comfort.</p>
+
+<p>The stables of the Western magnate were vast and wonderful. They had
+been divorced somewhat from their original use as a place for horses,
+two-thirds of the space being given up to motor cars and electrics. But
+the riding horses were in their stalls, and, as Bettina entered, their
+heads went up.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped to pet them, then the groom led the way to the harness room.</p>
+
+<p>It was a picturesque place, with its lacquered leather, its shining
+brass, its racing trophies, blue ribbons, gold-handled whips and crops,
+silver cups and medals.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll telephone for my car," Justin said, "and send a boy down to
+Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews. They'll probably go back in the boat,
+now that the storm is over."</p>
+
+<p>With the message sent, and the smiling groom, pleased with Justin's
+generous tip, dismissed, the two were again alone.</p>
+
+<p>"This is better," said Justin, as they settled themselves in front of
+the fire. "Now you'll get some color in your cheeks."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With her chin on her hand, she said slowly, "Do you know that nobody
+ever asked me to be his friend before?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's luck for me. There'll be no one else to share&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at him with enchanting shyness. "The trouble with most
+men is, I imagine, that they don't want friendship&mdash;they want love, and
+that isn't easy for a woman to give, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Silence, then at last, uncertainly, "I suppose not."</p>
+
+<p>"Any man can fall in love with a woman," she informed him, "but it seems
+to me that it must take certain kinds of men and women to be friends.
+That's why it seems so wonderful. Why, even if I married some one else,
+I could still be your friend, couldn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-es. Oh, yes, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps that's what I've missed all my life&mdash;the chance to really
+inspire some one. You know it's nice to feel that you're helping. And
+some men are so self-sufficient, so secure. You wouldn't feel that you'd
+dare to suggest. You'd only be a child to them&mdash;and while it might be
+nice to marry a man like that, it would be nice, too, to have the other
+kind for a friend."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Of all the bewildering little creatures! If she married some other man,
+forsooth! He set his teeth. Well, she <i>shouldn't</i> marry any other man.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," he asked, suddenly, "have you ever been in love?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, all rosy color and drooped lashes. The unexpectedness of her
+answer made him hesitate, but finally he ventured, "How did it feel?"</p>
+
+<p>She considered gravely. "Why, it's comfortable to know that you'll
+always have some one to take care of you, some one who's tender and
+good&mdash;too good, perhaps&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Justin was perplexed. She had spoken in the present tense. Was it
+possible that her fancy was really held by Anthony? Had their wild race
+in the storm meant nothing to her? To him it had seemed a sort of
+spiritual mating, with the storm crashing out a brilliant bridal chorus.</p>
+
+<p>He leaned forward. "What you're talking of isn't love," he said, almost
+roughly. "Love doesn't mean being comfortable; it doesn't mean being
+petted and coddled like a pussy cat, or being looked after like a child.
+It means what it meant to Romeo when he killed himself for love of
+Juliet. It means what it meant to Orpheus when he followed Eurydice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> to
+the underworld. It means what it will mean to me when I have found the
+one woman&mdash;that I'll work for her, live for her, die for her, and count
+the future blank if she does not love me in return."</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderful!" she whispered after a moment "How wonderful&mdash;to be
+loved&mdash;like that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His heart leaped. Some day he would make it wonderful! But not now. It
+was too soon to say the things he had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"The most wonderful thing right now," he said, "is that you are going to
+be&mdash;my friend."</p>
+
+<p>She responded radiantly. "It will be lovely to have a&mdash;big brother."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be lovelier to have&mdash;a little sister."</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand to her, and she took it, laughing lightly. And just
+then the smiling groom came to say that the gentleman's car was at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had stopped, but storm signals still showed in the south where
+the heavy clouds hung over the horizon. Overhead the sun shone, making
+kaleidoscope effects of the spring flowers in the checkered beds.
+Against the gray wall of the terraced garden the peach trees had been
+trained in foreign fashion and were full of rosy bloom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bettina, coming out of the darkened stable, opened her eyes wide.</p>
+
+<p>"What a different world it seems," she said, "from the one we left in
+the storm."</p>
+
+<p>Justin helped her into the car. "We'll reach home before the next storm
+breaks," he remarked, as he took his seat beside her, "but there's
+trouble ahead."</p>
+
+<p>To him the words held no sinister meaning, nor to Bettina. In their
+hearts was no fear of the future, nor of the storms which might some day
+wreck their happiness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WHITE MAIDEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Bettina, lonely in her tower, had often looked across enviously to the
+brilliantly lighted yacht club on the nights of the weekly dances.</p>
+
+<p>And now she was going to a yacht club dance with Justin in attendance,
+and with Sophie for chaperon; with Sara and Doris and Sara's brother
+Duke to be added to the party when they reached the club-house pier.</p>
+
+<p>The question of Bettina's gown had been a puzzling one. Sophie had
+brought out everything of her own, and Diana, white-faced after a
+sleepless night, had tried to put her mind on the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"These are all too elaborate," she said; "she is such a child. Perhaps
+it will be best for her to get some new things now, and if you will help
+her choose them, it will be a great favor to me, Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie came over and kissed her. "Poor dear," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Diana leaned back against her friend. "Don't," she said in a stifled
+voice. "I can't bear it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They clung together for a moment, then Diana went on steadily, "I am
+going to town for a few days, Sophie&mdash;I <i>must</i> get away for a bit, and
+if you don't mind, you can take Bettina in while I am gone and get her
+things. She insists that they shall not be gifts from me. She says that
+she's already under great obligations&mdash;and that her own little bank
+account is sufficient for her needs. Then, too, she can use all of her
+new things in her trousseau, and it does seem rather sensible, doesn't
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana had said nothing to Sophie of the meeting with Anthony in the
+empty house. It was an experience too sacred for discussion. But Sophie
+had guessed much. Anthony's continued absence, Diana's restlessness, her
+haggard eyes, her insistent tenderness and care of Bettina, showed the
+sympathetic and anxious friend that something unusual had occurred, and
+that Diana was fighting a tremendous battle alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Just let things run on here," Diana said, "as they always do. You can
+take my place as Bettina's chaperon, and Delia will take care of the
+house. I shan't be missed, and I can&mdash;get a perspective on the
+situation."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie protested. "It's too great a strain on you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>&mdash;you'd better send
+Bettina away&mdash;she and I could have a little trip somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is I who must go," Diana insisted. "Bettina must get acquainted
+with Anthony's friends. If he is going to marry her, he must be proud of
+her. You know that, Sophie," sharply, "it won't do for him to take a
+girl as the mistress of his home whom nobody ever heard of, and who
+could be criticized."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie rubbed her fingers lightly across Diana's forehead. "You think
+only of Anthony&mdash;do you never think of yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana stood up. "It's because I think of how foolish I have been," she
+said, "that I can get no rest. I should never have come back to America,
+Sophie."</p>
+
+<p>"But, dearest-dear, how could you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't know. But, oh, I wish that I had never come."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it happened that Sophie and Bettina had gone into town, and the
+primrose gown and the little serge suit and the new hats and the five
+pairs of shoes, together with a wonderful creation for the yacht club
+dance, had been sent out, and tried on, and pronounced perfect.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie's taste had supplemented Bettina's meager<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> funds. From her own
+store of exquisite laces and brocades, of buckles and bows, she had
+added finishing touches to frocks which might otherwise have been
+commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>When, therefore, on the day after her adventure with Justin Bettina took
+off her wrap in the cloak room of the yacht club, Sara Duffield drew a
+sharp breath of amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you look at that gown, Doris?" she said to her placid friend.
+"Would any one but an artist have dared to put on that side sash of
+rose-colored tulle with the silver tassel, and the wide collar of silver
+lace?"</p>
+
+<p>Justin Ford, knowing nothing of dressmakers, was none the less aware of
+the inspired creation.</p>
+
+<p>"And I said yesterday that you could not wear pink! But this isn't pink,
+is it? It's a rosy cloud on a May morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really like it?" demanded Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>"I love&mdash;it."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina laughed light-heartedly. It was great fun to have such a
+friendly understanding with this very charming young man. She wondered
+how she had quite&mdash;dared. Things seemed so different under this blaze of
+light. Had she really promised to be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> "little sister" to this most
+distinguished gentleman?</p>
+
+<p>They had come over in Bobbie's motor boat, and just before they reached
+the club-house pier, Justin had said, "The first dance is mine, you
+know. I'd like the second and the third, but I suppose that is
+forbidden. But you must give me all you can. I feel that I have special
+brotherly privileges."</p>
+
+<p>She danced exquisitely, her little satin-shod feet slipping silently
+through all the difficult twists and turns of the syncopated modern
+dances. Justin, guiding her expertly, knew that many glances were being
+leveled at them, knew that questions were being asked, that Bettina was
+being weighed in the social balance by the men and women who could make
+her success secure.</p>
+
+<p>When he gave her over, presently, to another partner he became aware of
+undercurrents. The girl with whom he danced shrugged her shoulders when
+he spoke with enthusiasm of Bettina's beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"Sara was telling me," she said, "that she used to live in the old Lane
+mansion, and that Diana Gregory has taken her up."</p>
+
+<p>"Sara?"</p>
+
+<p>Justin looked across the room to where Sara was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> dancing with Bobbie.
+And he made up his mind that before the evening was ended he should have
+something to say to the haughty little lady in blue.</p>
+
+<p>His opportunity came, presently, when he claimed Sara for a Spanish
+variation of the ever-popular Boston, in which his step particularly
+suited hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," he remarked, as they swayed to the music, "it's up to us,
+Sara, to see that Bettina makes a hit."</p>
+
+<p>Sara, tilting her chin, demanded, "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she is Diana Gregory's friend, and Diana's anxious to have
+people like her."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>He gazed down at the irritating profile.</p>
+
+<p>"You know why," he said with great distinctness. "Diana Gregory has a
+big heart, and this child has had a hard time. Diana wants to make her
+happy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But <i>why</i> is Diana so interested, Justin? There are plenty of lonely
+and unhappy girls. So why should Diana especially pick out Bettina?
+She's years younger than Diana, and they really haven't much in common."</p>
+
+<p>"She's very sweet&mdash;&mdash;" Justin was quite unaware of the intense fervor of
+his tones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sara's eyes narrowed to little flashing points, as she asked, "Are you
+in love with her?"</p>
+
+<p>Their eyes met. "Oh, Sara, Sara," he teased, "do you expect me to wear
+my heart upon my sleeve?"</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you to keep it from wandering toward the daughter of an
+Italian singer," she said, sharply. "I always fancied that you had
+rather decided ideas about family, Justin."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean that I'm proud of my Knickerbocker ancestry, I am," he told
+her; "just as you are proud of your Pilgrim forefathers. But Bettina
+Dolce's blood is bluer than any that ran in the veins of our
+middle-class English and Dutch grandsires. Her father was a Venetian,
+and Bettina has the beauty of those lovely ladies of old Italy."</p>
+
+<p>Sara's beauty was of an essentially modern type. "I don't see," she
+said, somewhat resentfully, "why I should be expected to fight the
+social battles of a girl who is really nothing to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not," easily, "but I rather fancy that any one who snubs Bettina
+will have to reckon with Diana&mdash;and with me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sara's lashes hid her sharp little eyes. She was thinking rapidly. She
+did not care to offend Diana<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>&mdash;but more, oh, much more than that, she
+did not care to offend Justin.</p>
+
+<p>She capitulated pensively. "Why, Justin, I don't know why you are
+calling me to account in this way. I'm sure I'm perfectly willing to
+help things along."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," was his delighted comment, and after that he danced with a heart
+as light as his heels.</p>
+
+<p>When the music stopped, Duke Duffield made his way toward them. "Oh,
+look here," he said to his sister; "why didn't you present me sooner to
+Miss Dolce? Gee, Sara, she's some dream&mdash;and her dance card was filled
+before I could get to it."</p>
+
+<p>Justin smiled at this slangy confirmation of his own opinion. He drifted
+presently through the room, looking for Bettina, and just as the music
+began again its rhythmical beat he saw her.</p>
+
+<p>Far at the other end of the room she was dancing with Anthony Blake!</p>
+
+<p>Bettina had never been so happy. Anthony's coming had pleased her. He
+had half promised that he might come, but there had been, as always, the
+possibility in the background that he would be kept away by some
+inconsiderate patient. But now he was here, and she was to have her next
+dance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> with Justin. Could anything be lovelier than to spend her evening
+thus between lover and friend, having Anthony's strength and kindliness
+to make her feel secure, and Justin's glowing youth to match her own.</p>
+
+<p>She decided that when she and Anthony were alone she would tell him
+about the race in the storm, and about her friendly compact with Justin.
+She was never going to keep anything from Anthony. Why, he was the best
+man in the whole wide world&mdash;the very best.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him with her eyes like stars and he, meeting that
+radiant glance, asked, "Are you happy, child?"</p>
+
+<p>She blushed and nodded. "Very, very happy!"</p>
+
+<p>And after that she danced in dreamy silence until Justin came for her.</p>
+
+<p>At supper, Anthony claimed Bettina as a matter of course, leaving Mrs.
+Martens to Justin. The four of them, with Bobbie and Doris and Sara and
+her brother ate at a little table on the club-house porch. In the pale
+light of the lanterns Bettina's beauty was more than ever ethereal.</p>
+
+<p>Justin, watching her with puzzled eyes, took note of her dependence upon
+Anthony, of her confiding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> manner, of her undoubted interest in him. Now
+and then she flashed a glance at Justin, and he was forced to content
+himself with such occasional crumbs from the queen's table.</p>
+
+<p>But he grew restless and uneasy. Anthony easily dominated the little
+group. It was in such moments that he was at his best. His brilliant
+wit, his forceful personality, had never been displayed to better
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Justin, beside him, felt young and crude. He told himself that he had
+nothing to fear. Everybody knew that Anthony cared only for Diana. Yet,
+even as he comforted himself, he saw Bettina's look of triumphant pride
+as Anthony brought a clever story to its climax, and his heart raged in
+impotent jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>They all went back together in Bobbie's motor boat, and in the darkness
+Justin managed to say to Bettina, "So you've deserted me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she protested, "but you see I couldn't desert&mdash;Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he, then, the first claim?" his voice shook as his dull resentment
+flamed.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated. "He&mdash;has been so kind&mdash;and he's a sort of guardian&mdash;you
+know&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She dared not tell him more than that, for had she not promised Diana
+that she would not? Her nature was so crystal clear that she would have
+been glad to set things straight, to tell him that she was going to
+marry Anthony, but that she would always be his friend. It was such a
+perfect arrangement; he would surely understand.</p>
+
+<p>She sighed a little, wishing that she had nothing to hide. And with her
+sigh his moodiness vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's because he's your guardian, all right&mdash;but I'm not going to
+give you up always so easily."</p>
+
+<p>"Why must you give me up at all?" she challenged.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" he echoed. "There is no 'why.' I shall never give you up."</p>
+
+<p>At Diana's door she said "Good-bye." "It has been the loveliest evening
+of my life," she told him. "I shall never forget."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony came in, ostensibly to telephone, but really to have a moment
+alone with Bettina. Sophie, with sympathetic insight, made the excuse of
+a letter, which Anthony could mail, and withdrew to write it.</p>
+
+<p>In the dimly-lighted music room, Anthony said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> "You must forgive me,
+dear child, for seeming to neglect you, but I've been such a busy man."</p>
+
+<p>"I know." She looked up at him. "But it seems nice to have you now."</p>
+
+<p>"And it seems nice to have you."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled at her, but he did not touch her. Somehow since that night in
+the empty house with Diana he had felt that there were things which must
+come slowly. If he was to play the lover to little Betty, it must be
+when he could shut out from his heart the image of that pale tall woman
+in the lilac-scented room.</p>
+
+<p>But Bettina missed nothing from his manner. She felt for him a grateful
+affection, an unbounded respect, but her wish for impulsive
+demonstration was gone. She was content to be near him, to know that he
+cared for her&mdash;beyond that she had no conscious desires.</p>
+
+<p>Still smiling at her, he took from his pocket a little box. "I haven't
+been too busy to remember that I wanted to give you this," he said, and
+handed it to her.</p>
+
+<p>Set in a slender ring were three great diamonds, and for a guard there
+was a little circlet of sapphires.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you won't care to wear it now," he said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>, as she gave a gasp of
+delight, "but I wanted you to have it. I wanted it to be the sign and
+seal of the bond which is between us."</p>
+
+<p>She came to him, then all gratitude and clinging sweetness, and put up
+her face to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p>He touched his lips to her forehead. And he said he was glad that he had
+made her happy. But he did not tell her that he had forced himself to
+plight thus, tangibly, his troth to her that there might be no escape
+from the path of honor which he must follow.</p>
+
+<p>Little Bettina, alone that night in her room, took off the rosy dress
+and laid it on her bed. Then, enveloped in her long white motor coat,
+she went out on her porch, and curled up in one of the big chairs.
+Across the harbor the lights were out at the yacht club. Between the
+Neck and the main shore little starlike points showed where the lanterns
+were swung on the sleeping boats. It was long after midnight, and the
+cold morning mists were already coming in.</p>
+
+<p>But she could not sleep. She had so many wonderful things to think of. A
+few weeks ago she had been a little lonely child with no one who cared
+whether she lived or died&mdash;now she was rich in love and friendship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She turned the ring on her finger. How strange it seemed to think that
+in a few short months she would be&mdash;married. That she would belong to
+Anthony until death should part them.</p>
+
+<p>Her breath came quickly. She stood up, slim and white in her long coat.
+Then suddenly she slipped to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please, please," she prayed, with her face upturned to the waning
+stars, "make me worthy of his love. Make me worthy to be his wife."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>YOUTH AND BEAUTY</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was two days after the dance at the yacht club that Diana came home.
+She arrived late and unexpectedly. Bettina had gone to bed, and the only
+light which burned to welcome her was Sophie's, on the third floor.</p>
+
+<p>Diana paid her cabman, and set her key in the lock, to be welcomed by
+Peter Pan's purring note as she opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>She stooped and picked up the big cat. "Dear Peter," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Peter, held against her heart, sang his little song of content, and,
+standing for a moment in the darkness, Diana fought for self-control
+before she went up to Sophie's room.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martens, wrapped in her gray kimono, was writing letters. She
+looked up with a glad cry as Diana entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Diana," she said, "you darling!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I didn't telegraph," Diana said, as she kissed her friend, "for there
+wasn't any use. I had my key, and I knew I could get a cab&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You're tired, dearest-dear." Sophie's worried eyes noted the weariness
+of gesture and tone, and the shadows under Diana's eyes as she untied
+her veil and took off her hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm tired, dead tired." Diana dropped into a chair, and laid her
+head against the cushioned back.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie bent over her. "You're not comfortable," she said; "come on down
+to your room and take a hot bath, and I'll heat a cup of milk, and then
+you can rest all warm and comfy, and I'll rub your head."</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie," said Diana, suddenly, "I wonder if I ever rubbed anybody's
+head?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Sophie; "what makes you say that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I've been thinking a lot since I went to town, and it seems to
+me that all my life I've just taken and have not given. I took Anthony's
+love&mdash;I've taken your service&mdash;&mdash;" She held out her hand. "Oh, I've been
+a selfish pig, Sophie, darling."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie took the extended hand and patted it. "What a silly thing to
+say," soothingly; "you've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> always been everything&mdash;to me, Diana. You've
+done so much for me that I can never repay."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, in giving big things&mdash;but it's the little things that
+count&mdash;like heating cups of milk and rubbing people's heads."</p>
+
+<p>She said it whimsically, but there were tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You come right down and go to bed," Sophie advised. "And we can talk
+all about it afterward."</p>
+
+<p>Diana, propped up among her pillows, watched her friend as she flitted
+like a gray moth about the room, intent on various comforting offices,
+and when at last Sophie brought to her a steaming cup Diana said, "Do
+you know, Sophie, I've always thought myself a rather superior person."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are," Sophie agreed.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not. Oh, I've made up my mind about things at last, and I know that
+it hasn't been Bettina's happiness, nor Anthony's happiness that I have
+been thinking about, but my own.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had not stayed on after I found out the state of things here," she
+continued, "Anthony would have learned to care for Betty&mdash;every man
+loves youth and beauty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie shook her head. "It takes us women all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> of our lives to learn
+that it is not for the red of our lips or the blue of our eyes that we
+are loved&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you know it is the beautiful women who draw men&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not the beautiful women who hold them. I'll set any demure
+little soul with a loving heart against all the faultlessly-regular
+-splendidly-null persons in the world when it comes to keeping the
+affections of a husband&mdash;and what has Bettina that she can give Anthony
+to take the place of the things which he has loved in you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has youth."</p>
+
+<p>"How you harp on that string! You have a mind and soul which meets
+Anthony's. And your beauty equals hers. You must not forget that,
+Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't forget it. I know what I mean to Anthony. But Bettina will mean
+other things to him. And who shall say which of us would make the better
+wife?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've thought these things all out, and I know that I could never be
+happy, Sophie, if my happiness were founded on the hurt heart of that
+child. And so&mdash;I am going away&mdash;and let things go back to where they
+would have been if I had never come&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you think they can&mdash;ever go back, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana, remembering Anthony's face in the moonlight, hesitated, then she
+said, bravely, "I shall not ask myself that question, Sophie. I shall
+simply do the thing which will seem right to me, and I am sure it is
+right for me to go away."</p>
+
+<p>"And Bettina?"</p>
+
+<p>"She must stay here with you until she is married. You won't mind, will
+you? There will be plenty of things to do. You can help with her wedding
+outfit. And after they are&mdash;married, you and I will go back&mdash;to Berlin.
+No, we won't, Sophie. We'll go to the desert, and down the Nile, and
+we'll go to Japan, and see Fujiyama; and we'll visit the temples in
+China, and we'll find out from some of those old Buddhists how they
+acquire&mdash;peace&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We will go to the ends of the earth if you wish&mdash;but there's only one
+place that I shall ask you to take me, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Where, dear heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"To that quiet spot over there in Germany, where the big cross stands up
+against the sky&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie&mdash;of course you shall go there, dear."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martens knelt by the bed. "I've been thinking of my lover, too,
+while you've been away. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> have each lost the man who made the world a
+wonderful place&mdash;henceforth you and I must live among the shadows&mdash;but
+because we have each other, it shall not be quite so hard."</p>
+
+<p>It was a long time before they came back to the question of Diana's
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>"But what excuse can you give for going now, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"My health," said Diana, promptly. "Everybody knows that I first went to
+Germany for the baths, and I can say what is true,&mdash;that the dampness
+here disagrees with me, with my throat."</p>
+
+<p>"But where will you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the mountains; oh, Sophie, I shall lift up my eyes to the hills, and
+hope for strength&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Out of the ensuing silence came the sound of a little tap at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Diana there?" asked Bettina on the other side. "I thought I heard
+her voice."</p>
+
+<p>As Bettina came in, the radiance of youth shone from within and round
+about her. She kissed Diana. "Oh, so many things have happened,"
+rapturously, "since you went away. Do you want me to tell you about
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"You blessed baby," said Diana, and it seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Sophie that in her
+voice was a note of sincere affection.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina curled herself up on the foot of Diana's bed. "Well, in the
+first place," she said, "Anthony gave me a ring&mdash;a lovely ring, and a
+little guard to wear with it."</p>
+
+<p>Diana did not flinch. "And why aren't you wearing your lovely ring," she
+asked, "for all the world to see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you said I mustn't," Bettina told her, "and so I keep it here."</p>
+
+<p>She tugged at a slender chain which hung around her neck, and brought
+forth from beneath the embroidered thinness of her gown the two rings,
+which gave out flashing lights as she bent toward Diana.</p>
+
+<p>Diana did not touch them. "They're lovely," she said, steadily; "aren't
+they, Sophie?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad he didn't give me pearls," Bettina went on, as Mrs. Martens
+exclaimed at their beauty, "because pearls mean tears."</p>
+
+<p>"I've always worn pearls," said Diana.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but not as love gifts," said Bettina, quickly. "It's only when your
+lover gives you a pearl that you weep&mdash;my mother's gift from my father
+was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> great pearl&mdash;and when&mdash;he went away&mdash;she dropped it&mdash;into the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>"And I didn't blame her." Bettina was swinging her own rings back and
+forth, and they gave out a silvery tinkle like a chime of fairy bells.
+"I didn't blame her, although the pearl was worth a great deal of money
+and we were poor. I shouldn't want a ring after a man had ceased to love
+me, would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said Diana, "and now&mdash;tell me, what were the other nice
+things which happened while I was away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," Bettina laughed, "I went fishing with Captain Stubbs and Miss
+Matthews, and Justin&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Justin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Justin Ford. He invited himself. I told Mrs. Martens when I came
+home that I tried not to have him go, but he would, and it stormed&mdash;&mdash;
+Oh, well, we had a lovely time."</p>
+
+<p>Somehow she had found it hard to tell Mrs. Martens, as she was finding
+it hard to tell Diana, just what had made the day so lovely. And as for
+her compact of friendship, she would tell Anthony but no other.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there was the yacht club dance," she con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>tinued, "and oh, Diana,
+you should have seen my gown&mdash;it was a dream."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie confirmed her verdict. "She was lovely in it, Diana," she said,
+"and everybody is talking of the success she made."</p>
+
+<p>"And Anthony came," said Bettina, "and when we reached home he gave me
+the ring, and yesterday I had a long ride with him; oh, yes, and the day
+before, Justin and Sara and Doris and I had lunch on Bobbie's boat."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought Bobbie's boat was in the yard for repairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is," said Bettina, "and that's the fun of it. He's living on board,
+and yesterday he and Justin looked up and saw me on the porch, and they
+insisted on having a lunch party, and Bobbie made his man get up a
+perfectly wonderful little lunch, and he telephoned for the other girls,
+and Duke, and we climbed the ladder and ate up there in the air, and
+Sophie chaperoned us from your front porch."</p>
+
+<p>"They wanted me to climb the ladder too," said Sophie, "but I told them
+I would be a little angel up aloft, and play propriety at a safe
+distance. It's a good thing the yacht yard happens to be at the foot of
+your rocks, Diana, or I'm afraid Bettina would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> have gone unchaperoned.
+It's a dizzy height up that ladder."</p>
+
+<p>"And Bobbie sent things up to her in a basket," Bettina related; "we let
+down a piece of hammock rope, and we tied the basket to it."</p>
+
+<p>Diana, listening to the light chatter, felt set apart by the tragedy of
+her own unhappiness. Once she would have enjoyed an escapade like the
+lunch party; now she was glad that she could go away&mdash;and leave it all
+behind her and perhaps&mdash;forget.</p>
+
+<p>"Bobbie is such a funny fellow"&mdash;Bettina was still swinging the tinkling
+rings&mdash;"and he's awfully in love with Doris. And Doris worships him, and
+it makes Sara furious."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear, Sara isn't the least bit in love with Bobbie."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, but she thinks Doris is so silly to let Bobbie see&mdash;but that's
+just what Bobbie adores in her. He likes to be worshiped, and he's
+positively puffed up with pride like a pouter pigeon because he's going
+to marry Doris."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's settled?" Diana asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It seems he proposed on the night of the yacht club dance, and
+yesterday at lunch Bobbie announced it, and he blushed and Doris
+blushed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>&mdash;but really it was awfully sweet, Diana&mdash;they are so happy."</p>
+
+<p>"At first I thought Bobbie liked Sara," Bettina stated, later.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no." Diana laughed. "It's Justin, you know, with Sara."</p>
+
+<p>The flashing rings tinkled, tinkled. Bettina's eyes were on them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, are they&mdash;engaged?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; it's just a friendship, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>So? Other girls were his friends! Bettina's head went up, and she
+slipped the rings back in their hiding place.</p>
+
+<p>"They've always known each other," Diana explained. "You see Sara was a
+sharp-tongued little girl, and Justin could get along with her better
+than the other boys because of his easy-going ways. And he gets along
+with her now, but usually it is a sort of armed truce."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina felt better, but needing further assurance, she ventured, "I
+suppose he has a sort of brotherly feeling for her."</p>
+
+<p>It was Sophie who answered that question.</p>
+
+<p>"No, he hasn't. Justin adores the memory of his own little sister. She
+was a dear child and lame.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> And she was about as like Sara, I imagine,
+as a white dove is like a peacock. Justin has often told me that when he
+marries he wants to find a woman to whom he can tell his dreams as he
+told them to his little sister&mdash;it is perhaps because he has failed to
+find such a woman that he is unmarried."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to Bettina, suddenly, that all the stars sang! "Oh, it's such
+a lovely world"&mdash;she was all aglow&mdash;"and you've made it lovely for me,
+Diana, by having me here, and doing wonderful things for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to stay for a long time, dear, until you are married. But
+you'll forgive me if I go away and leave you alone with Sophie for a
+while?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, must you go away again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'm not well. This air doesn't agree with&mdash;my throat," Diana
+stammered, not caring to meet the clear eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I'm afraid that I'm terribly in the way," Bettina said
+distressfully. "You'll want Mrs. Martens to go with you. You mustn't
+have her stay on my account. I can go back to my rooms with Miss
+Matthews. Really I can&mdash;I shouldn't mind."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I should mind very much." Diana<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> reached out her hand to her.
+"Don't make me unhappy by taking it that way&mdash;I want you here."</p>
+
+<p>"But you've done enough for me, putting yourself out in this way&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have done only the things that I wanted to do. And now don't make me
+unhappy by suggesting that you won't keep poor Sophie company. What
+would she do without you?"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina looked from one to the other. "Are you very sure you shouldn't
+go away together, if it weren't for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very sure&mdash;I should bore her terribly."</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed, and Bettina said, "Of course I know you're doing it
+all for my sake&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And for Anthony," said Diana, softly; "for the sake of my old friend
+Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderful your friendship is," said Bettina, softly. "It makes me
+believe in all friendship, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>A little later she slid down from the bed. "You're tired and I'm keeping
+you up. I'll run along."</p>
+
+<p>But Diana held her for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony will soon want to be going into the big house&mdash;when will you be
+ready, Bettina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not yet," said Bettina, breathlessly, "not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> yet. I'd rather wait.
+Don't you think it will be best to wait?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," her cheeks flamed, "I don't know why&mdash;only I don't want to get
+married&mdash;for a long time, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>Diana looked at her with puzzled eyes. There was some change in the
+child which she could not fathom. What had happened to little Bettina in
+the short time since she had been away? She would ask Sophie&mdash;she would
+ask&mdash;Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>In the adjoining room the telephone rang. Sophie, going to answer it,
+came back with the announcement, "It's Anthony. He wanted to know if you
+had returned. He needs you at the hospital. That little girl with the
+appendicitis is very much worse. But I told him that you had just
+reached home, and that you were so tired, and it was so late&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie, how could you? Tell him I'll come. Ask him to send his car for
+me. Bettina, dear, hand me my slippers, and help me with my hair."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina was shivering and white. "Is it the girl Anthony operated on?"
+she asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Sophie, I'll wear the white serge. It's the easiest to get into,
+and my long coat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina's shaking voice went on: "Wouldn't it be&mdash;dreadful&mdash;if anything
+happened? Wouldn't it be dreadful&mdash;if she should die?"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie laid her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Help Diana now, dear," she
+advised; "we'll talk about it afterward."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>HER LETTER TO ANTHONY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Diana never forgot that ride in the dark to Harbor Light. It was a clear
+night, with the sea like a sheet of silver under the moon. The big
+building, which loomed up, at last, before her, seemed, with its
+yellow-lighted windows, like some monster of giant size, gazing
+wide-eyed upon the waters.</p>
+
+<p>The gardens, through which she passed, were heavy with the scent of
+hyacinths; the slight wash of the waves on the beach only emphasized the
+stillness.</p>
+
+<p>As she drove up to the doorway, two night nurses flitted through the
+corridor, ghost-like in their white uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>Then came Anthony. His face looked worn and worried.</p>
+
+<p>"We couldn't save her, Diana," he said, tensely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the poor little thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"We made a fight for it. I sent for you because if she roused I wanted
+you to be there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If you had telephoned sooner."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not. The change was very sudden." He flung himself into a
+chair. "Oh, what is all my skill worth, Diana, when I couldn't save that
+child?"</p>
+
+<p>She had seen him in such moods before, when he had felt powerless
+against all the opposing forces of disease and death.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not care that others should see him. It was enough that she
+should know that this great doctor Anthony had his weaknesses. The rest
+of the world should not know it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come out into the garden," she coaxed; "the air will do you good."</p>
+
+<p>As they walked up and down the garden paths he gave her more definite
+details. "She did not know that she was going. There was no reason to
+trouble her gentle soul with fears. And so, at last, when she drifted
+off into the silence, she was smiling."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am sure that she was still smiling when on the other side she
+found Love waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderfully you put it, Di."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not because I put it that way; it is because it is wonderful. Do
+you know, Anthony, that has always been my idea of heaven&mdash;as a place
+where Infinite Love waits. If that little child had lived she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> would
+have faced a future of loneliness&mdash;now she will never be lonely&mdash;never
+sick&mdash;never unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"But she wanted to live."</p>
+
+<p>"But she didn't know life, Anthony&mdash;as some of us know it, as a place of
+unfulfilled dreams&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the beach, and the track of the moon spread out before
+them, ending only at the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>"She followed the path o' the moon," said Diana, softly, "a little white
+soul in a silver boat. Death is a great adventure, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes I feel as if I were merely a longshoreman, who helps to load
+the boats as they start on that great adventure&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we doctors see so much of pain which we cannot ease, so much misery
+which we cannot prevent. We see the innocent suffering for the
+guilty&mdash;the weak bearing the burdens which belong to the strong&mdash;and
+even if we try our hardest we can't change these things&mdash;and the boats
+still go sailing out to the Unknown&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony, I wish I might be sure of one thing&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What, dear girl&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"That you would never change your present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> point of view. So many
+doctors lose faith in human nature because they see only the diseased
+side, and their vision becomes distorted. And, losing their faith in
+man, they lose faith in God. The thing which has always made you, in my
+eyes, a great man as well as a great surgeon has been the fact that you
+have seemed to understand that you were working with Infinite Love
+toward the completion of a perfect plan; you have seemed to understand
+that life is good as long as it is lived wisely and well; that death is
+good when it ends suffering and sorrow. These things you have seen and
+known&mdash;I want you always to see and know them."</p>
+
+<p>"If any one could make me see and know them it is you, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>They were silent after that, and presently she said that she must go.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony took her home himself in his little car, and when at last they
+reached her door he said, gratefully: "What should I do without your
+friendship? At least I have that, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated. "It must be a long distance friendship, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going away."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, why should you? We are self-controlled man and woman, not impulsive
+boy and girl. We have set our feet on a hard path. Why shouldn't we
+cheer each other along the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it wouldn't be fair&mdash;to Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? My friendship for you need deprive her of nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I must think it over."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think. Don't analyze at all. Just stay." A grave smile lighted
+his face. "I'm not making this as a selfish proposition, Diana. I shan't
+expect to absorb you, to take you away from other friendships. But I
+want you to be near me at such times as this; when my world was without
+a ray of light, you illumined it with your friendly taper."</p>
+
+<p>Diana climbed the steps in an uplifted mood. This, then, was the
+solution of the difficulty. She had been making high tragedy of the
+situation when it might be solved sensibly. She remembered a quotation
+which she had copied in her school note-book: "My friend is one with
+whom I can associate my choicest thought." Her friendship with Anthony
+could go on as before. She could be an inspirational force in his life.
+Had she the right to refuse?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She found Bettina and Sophie sitting up for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're back so soon," Bettina said. "Is she better? Is that little
+girl better?"</p>
+
+<p>Diana returned to realities with a shock. How selfish she had been! She
+had almost forgotten that poor little soul at the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>"No, she isn't better." She shrank from voicing the truth. "They
+couldn't save her, and before I reached there she was&mdash;gone."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dead!</i>" Bettina shuddered. "Oh, I think such things are dreadful; I
+don't see how Anthony stands it."</p>
+
+<p>"It has made him very miserable," Diana told her; "he hates to lose a
+case."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why does he do it?" Bettina demanded. "Why doesn't he give up his
+surgery? He has enough to do with his freaks at the sanatorium, and his
+sick people who need medicine."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you have a man give up a thing which he can do better than other
+men?"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie, looking on, wondered if there had ever been a greater contrast
+than these two women who faced each other in the rose-colored room.
+Diana, tall and pale, with wisps of hair flying a bit untidily from
+beneath her soft hat, yet still beautiful and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> the light of high
+resolve shining in her steady eyes; Bettina, a little slender slip of a
+child, her fair shining braids falling below her knees, her eyes
+demanding why men and women should be dedicated to hardness.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been telling Bettina," Mrs. Martens interposed, gently, "that
+she will understand some day what such a man means to the world."</p>
+
+<p>For once in her life Diana, tired Diana, lost patience. "She ought to
+know what such a man means," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina put her hands before her face and stood very still.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear child," said Diana, remorsefully, "I shouldn't have said such
+a thing to you. I didn't mean it."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;">
+<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="392" height="600" alt="&quot;I SHOULDN&#39;T HAVE SAID SUCH A THING&quot;" title="&quot;I SHOULDN&#39;T HAVE SAID SUCH A THING&quot;" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Bettina's hands dropped straight at her sides. Her blue eyes were misty.
+"But it's true," she said. "I'm afraid&mdash;I'm afraid I'm not the wife for
+Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>Never had there been a truer saying. Yet the two older women stood
+abashed before the hurt look on the little white face.</p>
+
+<p>"He has always seemed to me to be the noblest man," Bettina went on. "I
+don't think I have ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> felt that he was anything but great. You
+people, who have always had everything, can't understand what he seemed
+to me when he used to come when mother was ill. You can't understand
+what it meant when he came to me when I was almost dead with loneliness,
+and told me that he wanted to marry me&mdash;you can't understand how every
+night&mdash;I pray&mdash;on my knees, that I'll be good enough for him&mdash;you can't
+understand how grateful I am&mdash;and how I try to appreciate his work; but
+I'm made that way&mdash;to hate pain. I hate to know about it&mdash;to see it&mdash;&mdash;"
+Again she shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>Diana drew her close. "Oh, you poor little thing," she said, "you poor
+little thing."</p>
+
+<p>When the dawn, not many hours later, peeped into the three rooms, it
+showed, in one, Sophie asleep beneath the picture of her lost lover. In
+another Bettina, asleep, with tears still on her lashes, and with the
+flashing rings rising and falling above her heart. In the third room it
+showed Diana, awake, after hours of weariness&mdash;writing a letter to
+Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>When Anthony had read that letter, he left the sanatorium and took a
+path which led him to the hills and into the hemlock forest. The walk up
+the hills<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> was long, and the sun was hot, so that when he reached the
+depths of the wood he threw himself down with a grateful sense of the
+stillness which could not be disturbed by telephone or tap at the door.
+For a little while he lay with his eyes shut, steeping himself in that
+blessed silence.</p>
+
+<p>When at last he sat up, he took from his pocket Diana's letter, and read
+it again, passing his hand now and then nervously through his hair,
+until it stood up like the ruffled plumage of an eagle.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><br />
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Dear Anthony</span>:&mdash;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"It will be easier for me to talk with you in this way than face to
+face. When you are with me, my point of view seems to get mixed up
+with your point of view, and before I know it, I find myself making
+promises which I cannot keep, as to-night, when I almost said I would
+stay&mdash;and be your friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always been your friend, Anthony. Haven't I? Even when I was a
+little girl, and you were a big boy, you seemed to find something in
+me which made it worth while for you to leave the other big boys and
+stay with me and talk about my books. Will I ever forget how you read
+some of them aloud to me? I never open now my thumbed little copy of
+'Cranford' without hearing your laughing voice stumbling over the
+mincing phrases, and as for 'Little Women,' I believe that I worshiped
+in you the personification of 'Laurie.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But those were not the best times, Anthony. The best were when it was
+too dark to read, and I would curl up on the big bench by the side of
+the fire, and you would lie at full length on the hearth-rug, and the
+wind would blow and the waves would boom, and you would weave tales
+for me out of your wonderful wealth of boyish dreams.</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed memories! But even then I believe I resented your
+masterfulness a bit, Anthony. There was that time when you told me
+that I must get my lessons before you would finish the story which was
+so near the end. And I cried and coaxed, but you stood firm&mdash;and I
+respected you for it, and hated you and loved you in one breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my big boy Anthony! Shall I ever forget you, with your brown lock
+over your blue eyes, your unswerving honesty of purpose, your high
+ideals. When you came home from college, and I had just put up my
+hair, and lengthened my dresses, you started to kiss me, then stopped.
+'I thought I could,' you said, with such a funny note of surprise in
+your voice, 'but there's something about you that sort of&mdash;holds me
+off, Di.'</p>
+
+<p>"I think then that I began to know my power over you. And how I have
+used it, Anthony! I have kept you single and alone all these years,
+because something in me would not yield to your kind of wooing.</p>
+
+<p>"If only you could have been a cave man and could have carried me off!
+So many women wish that of men, especially proud women. It isn't that
+we admire brutality, but we want to have all of our little feminine
+doubts and fears overcome by the man's decisive action. And you made
+the mistake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> of waiting patiently, asking me now and then, 'Will you?'
+instead of saying, 'You must.'</p>
+
+<p>"Yet while you could not win me, in other ways you dominated me. Do
+you remember the holidays when I came home from boarding-school, and
+you were interne at a hospital? You asked me to go to the theater with
+you, and at the last moment you were called to the operating room to
+help one of the surgeons. You telephoned that you'd send a carriage
+for me and my chaperon, but that you couldn't go;&mdash;and I wouldn't go
+either, but stayed at home and sulked, and looked at myself in the
+glass, now and then, to mourn over the fact that you couldn't see me
+in my pink organdie with the rosebuds.</p>
+
+<p>"But you wouldn't even apologize for what I called your neglect. I
+said I should never go with you. You said it wasn't neglect, and that
+I should go. And go I did, finally, as meekly as possible, and I wore
+the pink organdie and had a lovely time.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the memory of that night when you couldn't fit your plans to
+mine which has made me write this letter. When I came home from Harbor
+Light I found Bettina waiting up for me, and she broke down as the
+depressing realities of your work were forced upon her. I was very
+toploftical, Anthony&mdash;and was prepared to read her a sermon on the
+duties of a doctor's wife, when all at once I had a vision of myself
+in that rosebud organdie. I hated your work then, and I felt that you
+lacked something of devotion to me, to let it keep you from me.</p>
+
+<p>"But later I felt differently. The world began to call you a great
+man&mdash;and I began to see with clearer eyes what you were doing for the
+world. And so I helped you at Harbor Light, and saw you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> there at your
+best&mdash;with your forceful control of all those helpless people, with
+your steadiness of hand and eye, a king who ruled by virtue of his
+power over life and death.</p>
+
+<p>"It was in those days, I think, that I began to worship you. But I
+never called my worship love. I wanted to be Me, Myself, and somehow I
+felt that when I was once promised to you I should have no separate
+identity. It was the rebellion of a strong personality against a
+stronger one. I was not wise enough to see that you who protected
+others from the storms of life might want some little haven of your
+own&mdash;a haven which would be&mdash;Home.</p>
+
+<p>"But because you failed to be masterful in the one way which would
+have won me, because you said, always, 'Will you?' instead of,
+'Come&mdash;let there be no more of this between you and me, Diana,' I went
+away, not understanding you, not understanding myself.</p>
+
+<p>"And over there with Sophie, I met Van Rosen. As I look back upon it,
+I do not wonder that he charmed me. He was different from our American
+men, a lover of pleasure. He typified the spirit of joy to me&mdash;there
+was never a moment when he had not some vivid plan for me. We did
+things of which I had always dreamed.</p>
+
+<p>"He gave a house party for me in his ancestral castle on the Rhine.
+And he proposed to me in an ancient chapel with the moonlight making
+the effigies of his old ancestors seem like living knights in golden
+armor.</p>
+
+<p>"It was all so picturesque that practical America&mdash;that you, oh, I
+must confess it, Anthony,&mdash;seemed miles away. It seemed to me that in
+my own coun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>try we lived dreary lives in a workaday atmosphere. It was
+only in that castle on the Rhine that there were people who knew how
+to play. So I became engaged, and through all those months, Van Rosen
+and I played together.</p>
+
+<p>"But I grew so tired of it, so deadly tired of it! Life seemed to have
+no meaning. And after a time I grew a little afraid. Van Rosen was
+different. I can't define exactly where the difference lay. But
+between us was the barrier of centuries of opposing traditions. I
+began to feel that as his wife I should be a Princess in name, but a
+slave in fact. Always laughing, always seeming to dance in the
+sunshine, he had a hardness which nothing could soften. I saw him now
+and then with those whom he considered his inferiors. I saw his
+treatment of his servants, his horses, his dogs. I heard him speak
+once to an old and dependent aunt, at another time to a young
+governess&mdash;and my cheeks burned&mdash;and I was afraid.</p>
+
+<p>"It came back to me then how you had always treated those who were
+weaker than yourself. You had always been a champion of old ladies and
+children. Every animal, from Peter Pan to your old fat horse&mdash;that old
+fat horse now is living in clover since you acquired your motor
+cars&mdash;adored and followed you.</p>
+
+<p>"And one day I told Van Rosen&mdash;that I couldn't marry him. You don't
+know how humble I felt to think that I might have hurt him. But in
+that moment his real self showed. He was angry, furiously angry, and I
+knew all at once that it was my money, and not me that he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"And so I came back to you&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But you had Bettina, and there was no place for me. No place for the
+little dark-eyed girl who had listened to the big boy on stormy
+nights, no place for the woman who had not known her own heart&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And now you want me to be your friend. But I can't be your
+friend&mdash;Anthony. Friendship is for the man and woman who have never
+loved. A friendship which is the aftermath of love is the shadow after
+the substance. Can't you see that it is so? Can't you see that there
+would be just two things which might happen? If I stayed here and
+tried to be your friend, either I should knit myself to you by ties
+which should bind you to your wife, or we should drift apart, having
+the perfect memory neither of love nor of friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"Bettina is very young, but she has depths of which you have not
+dreamed, of which I had not dreamed, until I talked with her last
+night. I went up to her room, and we had a very sweet and tender
+confidence. It was almost dawn before I left her. She showed me much
+of her heart, as she will, I hope, some day show it to you&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hers is a little white soul, dear friend. On the surface she has her
+girlish petulances, her youthful prejudices. But these? Why, I had a
+thousand of them, Anthony. How I snubbed those poor students whom you
+brought with you one afternoon to tea because their elbows were shiny
+and their shoes rusty. I was such a little snob, Anthony. How I should
+welcome them now&mdash;those great doctors, who have done so much for
+humanity.</p>
+
+<p>"It is life which teaches us, dear friend. It will teach Bettina. And
+it must teach me this: To bear the hard things. Do you remember in
+those days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> when we read of knights on the battle-field that we loved
+those who died fighting? And how we hated those who ran away? Well,
+I'm going to fight&mdash;but my fight must begin by running away.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't a battle which we can fight together. The two who must do
+things together are you and Bettina. Any friendship of ours would shut
+her out. That's the plain truth, and you and I are old enough to know
+it, Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"There's much more that I could say to you. Much more. But you must
+read between the lines. All my days I shall have in my heart the
+memory of my dear&mdash;big boy. Some day when I am old and you are old, we
+can be friends. I'll look forward to that day, and it shall be my
+beacon light in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"It's good-bye, dear, for a long time&mdash;good-bye.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Diana.</span><br /><br /></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>How still it was in the hemlock forest! A squirrel which had ventured
+down from the branches flattened himself against the trunk of a tree and
+peered curiously at the figure which lay face downward on the fragrant
+carpet. One hand, outflung, caught at a little bush and held on as if in
+agony. The other hand grasped the sheets of gray paper, which,
+close-written, in feminine script, had brought a message of infinite
+pain and loss.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LITTLE SILVER RING</h3>
+
+
+<p>The yacht yard in which Bobbie's boat was hauled up for repairs lay at
+the foot of the rocks to the north of Diana's house. From the north
+porch, therefore, one could look down on the activities which had to do
+with the bringing in, and putting into shape the fine craft which
+through the summer were anchored in the harbor. A marine railway floated
+the boats in and out at high tide, and at such times creaked
+complainingly.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the north porch that Sophie and Bettina sat on the morning
+after Diana's departure&mdash;Sophie knitting a motor scarf for Anthony,
+Bettina hemstitching white frills.</p>
+
+<p>Below in the yacht yard the master gave orders, and the machinery of the
+marine railway began its clanking chorus. Bettina glanced over the rail.
+"Bobbie's boat is going out," she said, "and he and Justin are on
+board."</p>
+
+<p>Justin saw her and called, "May I come up?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bettina shook her head at him. "If he thinks I'm going to shriek an
+answer to the housetops, he's mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>Again she shook her head at him, and Justin immediately offered excuses
+to Bobbie.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't mind," he said, "if I go up there?"</p>
+
+<p>Bobbie jeered. "Talk about me! You're here to-day and there to-morrow.
+Yesterday it was Sara, and now it's Betty Dolce."</p>
+
+<p>"It was never Sara."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I said when I fell in love with Doris, but you wouldn't
+believe me. And I can't quite see the difference."</p>
+
+<p>"I've never cared for Sara in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have jolly well flirted with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try to be English with your 'jolly wells.'"</p>
+
+<p>Bobbie turned his back on Justin. "I suppose, then, you're not going to
+have lunch with me?" he said over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't we all have lunch with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is&mdash;all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Betty, and Mrs. Martens&mdash;and me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't Doris come into it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, if you can get her up."</p>
+
+<p>"I can always get her up. You know that. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> there's nobody just now in
+the world for you but Betty Dolce."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody but Bettina! Justin admitted it to himself triumphantly. Please
+God, there should never be any one but Bettina!</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps something of his thought showed in his face, for Bobbie clapped
+him on the shoulder with a hearty, "Go in and win her, old man, and
+we'll have a double wedding."</p>
+
+<p>"If my wedding," solemnly, "were as sure as yours, I'd burn incense to
+the gods."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why don't you make it sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't. She stands on her pedestal, and I can't reach up to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Man, you're afraid of her."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that. But I'm not in this race to fall out, Bobbie. I guess
+you can see that."</p>
+
+<p>Bobbie nodded. "Anybody who has eyes can see it," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The little yacht was in the water now, still helpless because of her
+furled sails.</p>
+
+<p>Justin, making a bridge of the small boats tied to the floating pier,
+gained dry land, and continued his conversation with Bobbie across the
+intervening space. "Suppose we cut the luncheon out, and go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> for a sail
+this afternoon. We can land off Gloucester way and have tea at the
+Lobster Pot."</p>
+
+<p>"Tea, meaning lobster sandwiches," said Bobbie. "Do you know, Justin,
+that the whole coast is blossoming with lobster sandwiches? Once upon a
+time one ate muffins with their tea. But now nobody takes tea. They take
+coffee and lobster sandwiches. And I don't like sea foods, and I don't
+drink coffee. Otherwise it is all right."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have muffins and jam. And you and Doris shall have a table by
+yourselves, and Bettina and I, and we'll ask Anthony to look after Mrs.
+Martens." He stopped. "No, we won't ask Anthony&mdash;he has a fashion of
+claiming Bettina. He's her guardian, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Justin. Did it ever occur to you that he'd like to be
+more&mdash;than a guardian?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's Diana for Anthony, Bobbie."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not so sure. Doris says there is something queer about it all&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Queer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, about Diana having Bettina here, and then going away and leaving
+her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sara's been talking. Doris wouldn't think such unpleasant things,
+Bobbie&mdash;there isn't anything be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>tween Anthony and Betty. There can't be
+anything&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But even as he said it he was stabbed by the memory of Bettina's radiant
+look of pride as she sat beside Anthony on the night of the yacht club
+dance.</p>
+
+<p>"No man," said Bobbie, "is going to wait forever, and Betty Dolce is a
+very lovely little lady. All the boys at the club are crazy about her,
+and if it hadn't been for Doris there's no telling how I might have
+felt&mdash;but Doris is the last one, Justin."</p>
+
+<p>"Good. I'll wigwag from the porch, Bobbie. Keep your eyes open for my
+signal."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, still hemstitching on white frills, welcomed Justin with a
+charming smile, but with a decided negative to his invitation.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going out with Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>Justin eyed her reproachfully. "I told you once before that three was a
+crowd&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but this time it isn't three, but two&mdash;Anthony and I are going
+alone in his little car, and we are to have dinner at Green Gables."</p>
+
+<p>All the laughter died out of his face. "Oh, I'm afraid you must think me
+all kinds of fool." He turned abruptly to Sophie. "Mrs. Martens, you'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+go in Bobbie's boat, won't you? He's dying to ask Doris."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really want me?" Sophie asked, brightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Always, dear lady."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, bending over her frills, felt a sudden sense of desolation.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear," she said, wistfully. "Why do all the nice things come at
+once?"</p>
+
+<p>With that sigh, joy came back to Justin.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into a chair beside her. "What time will you get home
+to-night?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"At eight. Anthony's office hours begin then."</p>
+
+<p>"May I come up?"</p>
+
+<p>"May he, Sophie?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's my bridge night at the club, dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please," Justin pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie laughed. "Well, Delia shall chaperon you. Of course you may come,
+Justin."</p>
+
+<p>Justin, signaling Bobbie a moment later, was conscious of a wild desire
+to shout to the four winds of heaven the fact that for one little hour
+he was to have his goddess to himself.</p>
+
+<p>For Justin's coming that night Bettina put on her white cr&ecirc;pe tea gown
+with the little lace mantle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> She was very tired after her ride with
+Anthony. There had been no reason for fatigue. He had been most kind and
+considerate. But Bettina's little efforts at conversation had seemed to
+her childishly inadequate. She had felt a sense of deadly depression.
+What should she do to interest him through all the years? Would he
+always have his mind on the things of which she knew nothing? Would she
+always try and never make a success of her efforts to enter into his
+life?</p>
+
+<p>She had tried to tell him about Justin&mdash;about their compact of
+friendship&mdash;yet the words had died on her lips. Suppose he did not
+understand? Suppose he did not approve? Suppose he should forbid her to
+have a big brother&mdash;as he had forbidden her to fly in the "Gray Gull"
+with Justin?</p>
+
+<p>She dared not risk such a catastrophe. She clung desperately to the
+thought of Justin's youth and gayety. No, Anthony might not understand,
+so why should she discuss it with him?</p>
+
+<p>At dinner Anthony roused himself and had played the gracious host. Yet
+on the return trip he had relapsed into silence, and she had again felt
+that sense of desperate failure. Oh, what kind of wife was she going to
+make for this grave Anthony, this great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> Dr. Anthony, who loved her and
+whom she loved?</p>
+
+<p>It was on the return trip, too, that he had spoken of their coming
+marriage. "Why can't it be soon, Bettina?" he had said. "Why should we
+wait, you and I?"</p>
+
+<p>She knew that there was no good reason. That a few weeks ago she would
+have been radiant at the prospect.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she told him, nervously, that if he didn't mind, it would be better
+to wait&mdash;a little. There were things to do.</p>
+
+<p>And he had acquiesced, because of his masculine ignorance of the things
+which must really be done.</p>
+
+<p>"The big house will be ready," he said, "when you are ready."</p>
+
+<p>As she changed her gown on her return home, Bettina meditated soberly on
+the situation. Diana, when they had talked together, had pointed out
+that the women who married such men as Anthony must be content to make
+sacrifices. "He belongs to the world, dear child," she had said; "you
+must remember that, if you would be happy. It must be your joy to help
+him in his great work."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina was beginning to be a little afraid of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> future. It was not
+that she did not love Anthony&mdash;why, Anthony was the best man in the
+whole wide world. But everybody expected so much of her, and she was not
+quite sure that she should come up to the full measure of their
+expectations.</p>
+
+<p>As she came down the stairs, Justin was waiting for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you little beauty," his heart whispered; "you little white and gold
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>She had twisted her hair low on her neck, and her delicate lace mantle
+fell about her like folded gossamer wings.</p>
+
+<p>"We will sit in the library," she said. "I have had a fire built. It is
+so damp and foggy outside. Sophie said you had to come in early from
+your sail on account of it."</p>
+
+<p>"We came near not coming in at all," Justin told her. "Doris was
+terribly scared. But Mrs. Martens was as cool as possible. It's rather
+risky business outside on such a day. The rocks are like needle points
+under the water."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a terrible coward."</p>
+
+<p>"You only think you are. When are you going to fly with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never&mdash;please."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had placed a chair for her by the fire, and stood leaning over the
+back of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Never is a long time&mdash;little sister."</p>
+
+<p>"But I should be afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Not with me."</p>
+
+<p>Silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Not with me." He came around so that he could look into her face.
+"Would you be afraid with me?"</p>
+
+<p>She knew that she would not. She had not been afraid in the storm. But
+these things were not to be told.</p>
+
+<p>She did not meet his eyes, but shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>He was struck by her troubled look.</p>
+
+<p>"Tired&mdash;little sister?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Her lips quivered. "Very tired."</p>
+
+<p>His heart yearned over her. She seemed such a little thing in that
+stately room with its high ceilings, its massive furniture, its
+book-lined walls. The only light came from the fire, and from a silver
+lamp which hung over Diana's desk. On the table near Bettina was a bowl
+of pink hyacinths, which filled the room with the fresh fragrance of
+spring.</p>
+
+<p>He was conscious of these things, however, only as a setting for her
+beauty. And he was more than ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> conscious of his desire to place
+himself between her and the world which might hurt her. "Let me help
+you," he said, earnestly. "Don't you know that my only desire is to
+serve you?"</p>
+
+<p>She considered him, wistfully. "It's dear of you to say that."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down, leaning toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't dear of me. It isn't even good of me. It's simply
+self-preservation. Don't you know, can't you see that I have only one
+thought&mdash;your happiness; only one wish&mdash;to be always near you?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the significance of his flaming words.</p>
+
+<p>She shrank back. "Oh, you must not say such things."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because. Oh, you called yourself my friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I am more than that," he said, steadily. "I am your lover."</p>
+
+<p>"Please&mdash;oh, please."</p>
+
+<p>She began to sob like a little child. "Oh, big brother," she told him,
+"you have spoiled everything."</p>
+
+<p>He knelt beside her chair. "How have I spoiled things?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I wanted you for my friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I am your friend, dear one."</p>
+
+<p>Very still and pale she fought against the sweetness of the truth he was
+forcing upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"Please&mdash;go away," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>He rose to his feet. "I shall not give you up."</p>
+
+<p>She rose also, a frail little thing in her floating draperies, and laid
+her hand lightly on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"There are things which I cannot tell you. But I need a friend. If you
+care for me you'll let me be your&mdash;little sister; you won't trouble me
+by saying such things as you have said&mdash;to-night."</p>
+
+<p>He tried with all the strength of his young manhood to hide his own hurt
+and meet her need.</p>
+
+<p>"I could kill myself for making you cry. I'm going to be good now.
+Really and truly your good big brother."</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at him with charming shyness.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll forget the things that you have said to-night&mdash;if you won't say
+them again."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not tie myself to an impossible promise," he repeated, "but I
+am going to tie you to a promise."</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" She faced him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Oh, see here," boyishly, "I brought some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>thing for you to-night. I
+have noticed that you don't wear rings, but I want you to wear this." He
+opened his hand and showed her, lying on the palm, a little silver ring.
+"It's just a simple trinket that my sister wore as a child. I'd like to
+think that it would tie you to me always&mdash;for remembrance. I had hoped
+that you would let me give you another some time. But this&mdash;why, you
+can't object to wearing it&mdash;and it would mean a lot to me if you
+would&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her slender fingers touched it. "How sweet of you to think of it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you'll wear it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;because you are&mdash;my friend."</p>
+
+<p>He took her hand in his and fitting the slender band first on one finger
+and then on another found a place for it at last on the little finger of
+her left hand.</p>
+
+<p>"With this ring," he said, softly, "I take you always&mdash;for my
+friend&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then he stood looking down at her. "What a lovely little thing you are,"
+he said. "You're so tiny that I could pick you up and carry you off, yet
+I tremble when I touch your hand."</p>
+
+<p>She drew a quick short breath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You aren't to say such things to me&mdash;you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be good."</p>
+
+<p>She knelt down like a child on the hearth-rug, and held her hand forward
+so that the light of the fire might shine on the silver circlet.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's engraved," she said, "with two hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said; "your heart and mine."</p>
+
+<p>As she bent forward, the thin chain which she wore about her neck swung
+forward from among the laces of her gown, and, "tinkle, tinkle," sounded
+the chime of the flashing rings which Anthony had given her.</p>
+
+<p>Justin saw her catch at them, saw her look of frightened appeal as she
+thrust them hurriedly back into their hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>She rose slowly from the rug; slowly she took the little silver ring
+from her finger; slowly she handed it back to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, I must not wear it," she said, with a break in her voice. "I
+must give it back to you&mdash;my friend."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>IN WHICH BETTINA FLIES</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the clear days which followed, Justin gave his undivided attention to
+flying. Not once did he see Bettina. Not once did he join the party of
+young people of which he had been the leading spirit.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did Bobbie formulate enticing plans.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go to Cat Island with Captain Stubbs, fish all day, and have
+chowder on the rocks."</p>
+
+<p>There had been one glorified fishing trip for Justin with Bettina. He
+wanted no other.</p>
+
+<p>"I've wasted enough time," he said shortly. "I came here to practice
+flying, not to do social stunts."</p>
+
+<p>Sara urged him also. "You haven't played a set of tennis with me since
+you came up," she complained. "Of course I know you're simply crazy over
+Betty Dolce, but that needn't cut me out entirely. I thought my
+friendship meant something to you, Justin."</p>
+
+<p>"It does," Justin told her, honestly, "but I'm not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> in a mood for
+tennis, and as for Betty Dolce, I haven't seen her for a week."</p>
+
+<p>Sara was cheered by his statement. If his absorption was simply in his
+flying machine, she could wait. Men always returned finally from
+machines to femininity.</p>
+
+<p>So Justin flew and flew, looking down at times upon the tops of the
+houses in the quaint coast towns, at other times having beneath him and
+above him blue sea and blue sky.</p>
+
+<p>And everywhere he went, he knew that people were craning their necks and
+crying out in wonder, for in this part of the world, at least, such
+aerial craft were rare visitors.</p>
+
+<p>And when he grew tired of great heights, he would let his shining ship
+slide down the air currents until it touched the water; then like a
+mammoth aquatic bird it would swim the surface, and the sailors on the
+big yachts would lean out over the sides and hail him, and the motor
+boats would follow him, until, at last, growing impatient of their close
+observance, he would rise again, higher and higher in the golden haze;
+earth would be left behind, and he would be alone with his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>And he thought always of Bettina.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He thought of her as he had first seen her, in the shadowy room, with
+her shabby black dress and her white and gold beauty. He thought of her
+as she had come toward him under the lilacs, a flower among the flowers.
+Again he saw her dancing, like a wraith, in the moonlight; he saw her,
+in the little blue serge frock and shady hat, measuring him with her
+cool eyes; and again, laying plates on the flapping cloth with white
+hands, or racing with him against the wildness of the storm. He saw her
+with her fair wet braids hanging to her knees, and her slender fingers
+twisting among the gold. He saw her with the light of the harness-room
+fire upon her as she promised to be his friend.</p>
+
+<p>But most of all he saw her as she had been that last night in the great
+library, frail and white in her floating draperies.</p>
+
+<p>"You have spoiled everything," she had said.</p>
+
+<p>How had he spoiled everything?</p>
+
+<p>In one moment he would resolve to have it out with her. In the next he
+would plan to go away, to give her up, to forget her.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks ago he had not known her. He had liked many women, but had
+loved none. He had been heart-whole and fancy free. And now his life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+his happiness, all of his future, were bound up in this little pale
+child with the wonderful hair!</p>
+
+<p>Up and up, higher and higher. It was like the flight of an eagle.</p>
+
+<p>And far below, on a porch which overhung the harbor, two women watched
+with beating hearts.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, why will he do it?" Sophie asked, in agonized tones. "It is so
+dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina caught her breath. "Somehow I can't think of the danger," she
+said. "He isn't afraid, and to me it seems&mdash;very wonderful&mdash;as if he had
+wings, and could fly&mdash;straight up&mdash;to heaven&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As Justin had thought all that week of Bettina, so she had thought of
+him; every moment of the day, and into the night, the vision was upon
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Again she was held by those mocking eyes, again she was thrilled by that
+mad race in the rain. She saw him as he had been on the night of the
+yacht club dance, with his laughing air of conquest; as he had been in
+the great library, saying steadily, "I am your lover&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He had gone from her, angry, that night because she would give him no
+explanation of her refusal to take the silver ring.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, I cannot," she had repeated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had caught hold of her hands. "You are not a flirt," he had said;
+"you are too sweet and good for that&mdash;but what do you mean by your
+mysteries&mdash;&mdash;Oh, why can't you tell me the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>She had looked at him, dumbly, and he had rushed away, leaving her
+unforgiven.</p>
+
+<p>She had written at once to Diana, asking to be released from her promise
+to keep her engagement secret. "People ought to know," was the reason
+she gave.</p>
+
+<p>She had also telephoned to Anthony. She wanted to see him. To tell him
+that she would marry him as soon as he wished. That would be the
+solution. Then Justin would understand, and would forgive her.</p>
+
+<p>She felt that more than anything in the whole wide world she wanted
+Justin's forgiveness.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony had come, and they had gone into the library where she had
+talked with Justin, and Anthony, preoccupied and silent, had placed a
+chair for her, and had stood where Justin had stood. And she had
+shivered and had begged, "Sit down where I can see you."</p>
+
+<p>He had taken the chair opposite her, and suddenly she had surprised
+herself and him by coming over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> to him, and slipping to her knees beside
+his chair, and sobbing with her face hidden.</p>
+
+<p>He had lifted her in his arms, and had soothed her like a child. "What
+is it, dear heart?" he had demanded.</p>
+
+<p>And, like a child, she had answered:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please, let's get married right away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She had explained haltingly that she had been lonely since Diana went
+away, and unhappy. She&mdash;she missed her mother&mdash;and Diana's house wasn't
+her home. Sophie was dear, but, oh, it would be much better to be
+married as soon as she could get ready.</p>
+
+<p>"And how soon will that be?" gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"In a month. I think everybody should be told now."</p>
+
+<p>He agreed. "Perhaps it should have been announced at once, but Diana
+seemed to think that it was best to wait."</p>
+
+<p>"Diana doesn't know&mdash;everything."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but she is wise in many things."</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"When we are&mdash;married, will you and Diana be just as good friends?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I hope that we may&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Something in his tone had made her look up and say quickly, "Oh, I
+<i>want</i> you to be friends. You didn't think that I was jealous&mdash;of
+<i>Diana</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>He had thought she might be. If she knew the truth she would surely have
+a right to be. But she did not know the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you ask?" he probed.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," feverishly, "it doesn't seem right, does it, that just
+because a man and a woman are married they should never have any men or
+women friends? There's Bobbie, for example&mdash;and&mdash;and Justin&mdash;I shan't
+have to be just your wife, shall I? I can have them for friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course." Yet even as he said it he wondered if he would care to have
+her allegiance divided&mdash;as his was divided. Oh, wise Diana, who had
+refused to be what she had no right to be, what he would not want his
+own wife to be, when once she was bound to him&mdash;the dear friend of
+another man.</p>
+
+<p>"You and I," he said, "must try to be all in all to each other." Then
+after a pause, "Do you really love me, child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes." Again she drew a sobbing breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I am such an old fellow," he said, in a troubled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> way, "and you are
+made for bright things and gay things. I wonder if you will be happy
+with an old tired fellow like me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>In her simplicity she believed that his appeal was that of love, and out
+of the gratitude which she felt that she owed him she tried to respond.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do love you," she whispered, "and when we are married&mdash;we shall
+be happy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Presently she tugged at the thin chain about her neck, and brought forth
+the rings.</p>
+
+<p>"After this I shall wear them," she said, "for all the world to see."</p>
+
+<p>When Anthony went home he answered Diana's letter. He had sent her
+flowers on the day that she had left&mdash;her favorite violets and valley
+lilies. Beyond that he had made no sign.</p>
+
+<p>But now he wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><br />
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Oh, dear Wise Woman:</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"During all the days since I received your letter I have not been able
+to see things as you wanted me to see them. I have raged against Fate,
+and have been pursued by Furies. I have shut myself away, as far as
+possible, from the world. At one moment I have doubted your love for
+me; at the next, I have resolved to follow you, play cave man, and
+carry you off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have read and reread your letter, trying to find some weakness to
+which I could appeal&mdash;but I could find none. But finally, as I read,
+one sentence began to stand out: 'We loved those who died&mdash;fighting.'
+When I got into the swing of that thought it stirred me. I am going to
+live&mdash;fighting&mdash;perhaps I shall die&mdash;fighting&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To-day Bettina has told me that she will marry me in a month. She
+says that she has written you that it is best that people should know
+at once. And I think that it is best. I shall try to make her happy,
+but if I conquer life, if I ever do any great thing or good thing or
+wise thing, it will be because you have shown me the way.</p>
+
+<p>"You say, 'When we are old, we can be friends.' How I shall welcome
+old age, Diana! May the years fly swiftly!</p>
+
+
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Anthony.</span><br /><br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having squared himself thus with the inevitable, Anthony, a little
+grayer, perhaps, a little more worn and worried, took up life where he
+had left off before Diana came home from Europe.</p>
+
+<p>He had seen nothing, of late, of Justin, except as he had glimpsed him,
+now and then, in the air.</p>
+
+<p>But on the morning on which Bettina and Sophie had watched the flight
+from their porch he came upon the young aviator, near the sheds,
+standing in the midst of an eager group of young folks, adored by the
+girls, envied by the boys.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Amid the clamor of voices he caught the question, "Are you going up
+again this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Then, over their heads, Justin saw Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring Betty Dolce up this afternoon," he called, "and I'll show you
+through the shops. There are four ships beside mine in the sheds, and
+they'll be sent out to-morrow. You and she may never have a chance to
+see so many together."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony agreed, and called up Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>She assented eagerly. To-day, then, Justin should see her rings. He
+would ask for an explanation. She would tell him,&mdash;and he would
+understand. When he knew that she belonged to Anthony he would forget
+that he had wanted to be anything but her friend, and things would be as
+they had been before.</p>
+
+<p>So, knowing nothing of the hearts of men, she argued in her innocence.</p>
+
+<p>When she saw Justin, she felt that even through her gloves he must see
+the rings. But his eyes were on her face, and she burned red beneath his
+glance.</p>
+
+<p>On an impulse he had asked her. If Anthony brought her, he should see
+her, talk to her. That, for the moment, would give his heart respite
+from the pain which gnawed it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the dimness of the great sheds Bettina flitted silently like a white
+moth from place to place. She left the conversation to Justin and to
+Anthony. When Justin made explanations she seemed to listen, but she did
+not look up.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, she heard not a word. Her mind was on her rings.
+She began to take off her gloves, slowly; dreading, yet craving the
+moment, when Justin should look at her hands.</p>
+
+<p>But he was still explaining to Anthony: "These pontoons do the trick. An
+aeroplane simply flies. But the hydro-aeroplanes fly and swim, and
+that's what makes them so safe when there's water to cross."</p>
+
+<p>As he touched the delicate wires of the framework they gave forth a
+humming noise. "When you're up in the air," he said, "it sounds like the
+crash of chords."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina's gloves were off now. The big diamonds on her left hand seemed
+to catch all the light in the dim room and to blaze like suns!</p>
+
+<p>But Justin was thinking only of Bettina's eyes under her drooping veil,
+and of her cheeks which burned red, and of her lips which were closed
+against any speech with him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They went on to the last shed, which was open, and from which a track
+descended into the water.</p>
+
+<p>Poised there, in the half-darkness, like a bird at rest, was another
+ship, ready for flight.</p>
+
+<p>"This is mine," said Justin; "the 'Gray Gull.' I wanted to call her 'The
+Wild Hawk,' but changed my mind. Do you remember Kipling's</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The deer to the wholesome wold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As it was in the days of old'?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"It is one of Diana's favorites," said Anthony. But Bettina said never a
+word.</p>
+
+<p>And just then a boy came to say that Dr. Blake was wanted at the
+telephone.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a hurry call," Anthony came back to tell them. "Would you mind
+walking home with Bettina, Justin?"</p>
+
+<p>Would he mind? Suddenly all the stars sang!</p>
+
+<p>The moment that Anthony's back was turned Bettina felt a frantic desire
+to hide her rings. What would Justin say when he saw them? With Anthony
+there she had felt brave. But now&mdash;she turned the rings inward and began
+hastily to put on her gloves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> Oh, to-night, after she reached home, she
+would write Justin a prim little note and tell him of her engagement!
+That would be better, of course! She should have thought of it before!</p>
+
+<p>Crashing across her trembling decision came Justin's demand.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here. Why can't you fly with me now? Just a little way, low over
+the harbor? Come&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to her that between them was beating and throbbing darkness,
+out of which his eager eyes said, "Come."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she protested, with dry lips. "Anthony wouldn't like it."</p>
+
+<p>"What has Anthony to do with it?" He had taken her hands in his and was
+crushing them. The rings cut and hurt, but she made no sign; she only
+looked at him large-eyed, and said, not knowing what she said, "He has
+nothing to do with it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then come&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was conscious that he was taking the pins out of her big hat. That
+he was winding her white chiffon veil, nun-like, about her head, so that
+her face was framed. And within this frame glowed her hot cheeks and
+questioning eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he said, again, and lifted her to her seat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> and fastened her in,
+and took his place beside her. He whistled, and two men came, and the
+buoyant ship slid down the track toward the water; the big propeller
+waved for a moment its octopus arms, then started with a mighty roar.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment they swam the surface, then, light as a bird, the "Gray
+Gull" soared.</p>
+
+<p>Up and up, with the white yachts in the harbor just beneath them, with
+the gold of the sunshine surrounding them; and out of it his face
+bending down to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid?" he asked, as he had asked in the storm.</p>
+
+<p>And she, with her cheeks still burning hot, looked up at him and
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid&mdash;with you? Oh, Justin, Justin, I could fly like this&mdash;forever."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>VOICES IN THE DARK</h3>
+
+
+<p>Captain Stubbs' cottage was one of the show places of the town. Built
+before the Revolution, it was of typical English rural architecture&mdash;one-storied,
+with a square chimney, and with a garden which
+made it the delight of artists who came from far and near to paint
+it; in the spring crocuses starred the borders, violets studded the lawn
+with amethyst, pale irises and daffodils, narcissus and jonquils stood
+in slim beauty. Later came sweet peas, and the roses followed, hiding
+with their beauty the weather-beaten boards. The late summer brought
+nasturtiums in all their richness of orange and bronze-brown, and in the
+fall, the dahlias blazed.</p>
+
+<p>The captain lived alone, attending to his domestic affairs in a fashion
+which was the envy of less spick and span housekeepers. He would not
+have his home invaded by prying folk, but to his invited and welcome
+guests he would show his carved ivories, his embroideries, heavy with
+gold, his dragon-en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>circled jars and vases. Everywhere was the charm of
+shining neatness, and flowers were everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I should have looked for a wife," the captain had told Bettina
+and Miss Matthews one day when they had lunched with him, "if it hadn't
+been for my flowers. I don't need a wife to cook for me. I'm a better
+cook than most women. And I don't need a wife to mend my clothes,
+because every sailor can handle a needle. And I don't need a wife to
+keep the house clean for me&mdash;there isn't any woman on earth that makes
+things shine like a man who has been taught to rub brasses and scrub
+down decks. What I'd need a wife for would be to make things pretty, and
+to look pretty herself. But Lord, I ain't the kind to attract a pretty
+woman&mdash;and so I just gave it up."</p>
+
+<p>A faint glimmer of resentment had shone in Miss Matthews' eyes. "I guess
+most women are kept so busy that they haven't time to think about their
+looks."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I had a wife," the captain had said, "I'd like to have her
+wear bright things. My mother had dimity dresses&mdash;there was a pink one,
+like a rose, and a green one that looked like the young grass in the
+spring, and there was one that made me think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> of forget-me-nots, or the
+sky when there isn't a cloud in it."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina had smiled at him. "How pretty your mother must have been."</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't that she was so pretty; it was her soft, quiet ways, and
+those bright-colored roses. And I've been looking for that kind of woman
+ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"If your mother," little Miss Matthews had told him, "had lived in this
+day of shirt-waists and short skirts, she'd probably be wearing high
+collars and sad colors with the rest of us."</p>
+
+<p>The emphasis with which the little lady had offered her opinion and the
+flush on her face had made Bettina look at her with awakened eyes.
+"Why&mdash;I believe she likes him. She'd be really nice-looking if she'd fix
+her hair&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>To-day, as Miss Matthews stopped for a moment at the captain's gate to
+admire his sweet peas, she was not even "nice-looking." She was pale and
+thin, and had a hoarse cough.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going home and to bed," she said. "I took cold that day in the
+rain, captain, and it hasn't left me since, and I took more cold
+yesterday, going to school without my overshoes."</p>
+
+<p>"You come right in, and I'll make you a cup of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> tea," said the captain,
+hospitably. But Miss Matthews refused, wearily.</p>
+
+<p>As she turned away, however, Mrs. Martens came to get the flowers which
+were the captain's daily offering for Diana's table, and the little man
+extended a beaming invitation to both of them.</p>
+
+<p>"You pick your posies," he said, "and I'll get some tea for you and
+bring it right out here. You make her stay, Mrs. Martens; she needs a
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie smiled at the little teacher. "You ought not to be out at all,"
+she said, sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"School closes in four days," explained little Miss Matthews; "after
+that I think I shall fall down and die, but I've got to keep up until
+then."</p>
+
+<p>As the two women stood there at the gate together, they presented a
+striking contrast: Sophie in her black, modish garments, with the look
+upon her face of the woman who has been loved, and who has bloomed
+because of it; Miss Matthews, a faded shadow of what she might have been
+if love had not passed her by.</p>
+
+<p>"How's Betty?" Miss Matthews asked, as she sat down on a bench on the
+little covered porch, and watched Sophie's slender fingers pull the
+sweet peas.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie straightened up. "I'm worried about her,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> she said. "She and
+Anthony Blake went to see the air-ships, and I had a telephone message
+from Anthony that he had had a hurry call, and that Justin would look
+after Betty. That was two hours ago, and Betty hadn't returned when I
+left to come here&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Stubbs, appearing with a big loaded tray, gave important
+information.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she have on a white dress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she's gone flying with Justin Ford."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" Sophie stood up, and all the fragrant blooms fell at her feet.
+"Oh, surely he wouldn't take Betty up with him. It would be dreadful."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't you worry," said the captain; "he ain't goin' to let a hair
+of her head get hurt&mdash;he's daffy over her."</p>
+
+<p>"Daffy?" Sophie stared.</p>
+
+<p>"Yep." The captain set his tray on the rustic table. "He and that Betty
+child went with me and Miss Matthews for a day's fishin', and at first
+we didn't notice anything, but after a while we began to open our
+eyes&mdash;and, well, we ain't blind, are we, Miss Matthews?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews, drinking her tea thirstily, took up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> the captain's story.
+"It rained, and the captain and I wrapped up and stayed by the boat. But
+those young folks ran off, and he was helping her along, and she was
+looking up at him&mdash;and&mdash;everybody knows what's going to happen when two
+people look at each other that way."</p>
+
+<p>"And if they are flying," the captain chuckled, "they're probably as
+near heaven as it's possible to be this side of the pearly gates."</p>
+
+<p>But Sophie would not treat the subject lightly. "It's bad enough for a
+man to fly," she said, "but he had no right to take that child up with
+him. Where did you see them, captain?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was standing on those rocks out there, and I saw him rise up over the
+harbor. I could see that he had someone with him, so I went in, and got
+my glass, and sure enough, there she was, all in white, with a white
+veil wrapped tight about her head."</p>
+
+<p>"Which way did they go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Straight out beyond the harbor, and up toward Gloucester way&mdash;but don't
+you worry, Mrs. Martens; they'll be back before they know it."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do worry," Sophie declared, "and I shall certainly tell Justin
+what I think of his foolhardiness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, you take your tea," said the captain, soothingly, "and I'll call
+up and see if they have come in."</p>
+
+<p>Taking tea with the captain meant the tasting of many strange and
+wonderful flavors. The little man had clung to all the traditions of his
+seagoing forefathers, who had brought back from the Orient spicy things
+and sweet things&mdash;conserved fruits and preserved ginger, queer nuts in
+syrup, golden-flavored tea, and these he served with thick slices of
+buttered bread of his own making.</p>
+
+<p>"You might have had a lobster," he said to Sophie, "if it hadn't been so
+near your dinner time. I've got 'em fresh cooked."</p>
+
+<p>But Sophie shook her head. "I like your sweet things better. Bobbie and
+I are the ones who don't like lobster. He says that I'm a sort of oasis
+in a desert of shell-fish."</p>
+
+<p>"He's got a nice boat," said the captain, "and he's got a nice girl. I
+like Doris."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie's mind went back to Bettina. "Oh, will you telephone, please,
+captain?"</p>
+
+<p>The captain came back with the news that nothing had been seen of the
+"Gray Gull," but that there was no need to worry, as the day was
+perfectly calm, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> that, as he had Miss Dolce with him, he would
+certainly not fly high.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie refused to be comforted. "I shall tell Anthony," she said; "he
+must speak to Justin."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see what Blake's got to do with it," said the blunt captain;
+"young Ford may tell him to mind his business&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie's head went up. "Dr. Blake is Bettina's guardian," she said, "and
+if Justin resents his interference, I shall certainly be much
+disappointed in Justin."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews bristled. "You ought to have seen the care he took of her
+that day in the rain. I shall never forget the sight of those two young
+creatures running up the hill&mdash;the captain said then he had never seen a
+prettier pair."</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of her worry Sophie felt an insane desire to laugh. Was
+this tragedy only or, after all, a comedy? If Betty loved Justin? Her
+imagination could scarcely compass the consequences of this possibility.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie walked home with Miss Matthews, and, returning to Diana's, met
+Sara half-way.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Bettina flying with Justin?" Sara asked, abruptly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Captain Stubbs says that she is. I am very much displeased with Justin.
+It is really unpardonable that Bettina should be subjected to such
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>"She didn't have to go if she didn't want to," said Sara, sharply, "but
+she's crazy about him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear&mdash;&mdash;How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anybody can see it. And I guess it's the real thing this time with
+Justin."</p>
+
+<p>The wistful expression on the sharp little face touched Sophie's kind
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hardly likely. They have known each other for such a short time."</p>
+
+<p>"Time has nothing to do with love," said the sophisticated Sara. "A man
+and a girl can meet and love in a week and live happy ever after. Oh,
+yes, they can. And they can know each other all their lives and be
+perfectly miserable. Dad and mother grew up together, and you've heard,
+Mrs. Martens, what a life they lived."</p>
+
+<p>The story of the unhappiness of Sara's parents was common property. Yet
+it hurt Sophie to see the hard look in the girl's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," she said, "everything depends on the amount of
+affection which two people give each other&mdash;time doesn't count."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sara was digging the point of her parasol into the sand. "I've never
+seen anything like it with Justin. Why, he's <i>never</i> asked any woman to
+fly with him. And when I looked up a while ago, and saw that he
+had&mdash;her&mdash;I knew he wouldn't have&mdash;asked her&mdash;if he hadn't&mdash;cared&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we are making things more serious than they really are," Sophie
+said. But as the two women walked on together, her mental disturbance
+continued. What if Miss Matthews and Sara had spoken the truth? How
+would it affect Bettina&mdash;how would it affect&mdash;Diana?</p>
+
+<p>"I can't quite understand what all the men see in her," Sara was saying.
+"Of course she's a beauty. But she's so little and white&mdash;and she
+doesn't seem so terribly clever&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There's a charm she has inherited from those sleepy Venetian ladies,
+who only waked now and then to flash a glance at some man&mdash;and hold him
+captive. Those beauties were without conscience. But Bettina has a
+Puritan streak in her which she gets from her mother&mdash;that's what makes
+her such a fascinating combination, Sara. She's like a little nun; yet
+one feels instinctively that back of that calm exterior there is force
+and fire."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sara nodded. "I know. Men don't like the obvious. That's why so many of
+us American girls fail to inspire grand passions. We have no
+surprises&mdash;no high lights or shadows&mdash;it's all glare&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not sure, my dear, but that, in the long run, such women make men
+happier than the other kind. In this practical world there's little room
+for varying moods."</p>
+
+<p>"If Justin marries Bettina," said Sara, "they'll live on rhapsodies."
+She drew a quick short breath. "There won't be any commonplaces. They're
+both made that way. It will be all romance and roses&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear&mdash;aren't we taking things a bit for granted?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see. You haven't watched them as I have."</p>
+
+<p>They had reached Diana's house, and Sophie asked Sara to come in.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't. It's getting late and I must dress for dinner&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Some other time then, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I shall love it." Then, with some hesitation, "I'm afraid I've
+said more than I should&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie bent and kissed her. "Not a bit. I'm a perfect keeper of
+confidences&mdash;and not a soul shall share what you've told me&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Delia met Mrs. Martens in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Blake's on the porch," she said, "and he's asking about
+Bettina&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't she come?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"What time is it, Delia&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Half-past six&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of all the mad things to do," said Anthony, as Sophie went out to him.
+"I shall certainly call Justin to strict account&mdash;for asking her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She shouldn't have gone," Sophie said. "I can't imagine how he induced
+her. She's such a little coward."</p>
+
+<p>"They've been away three hours. I went over to the sheds and started a
+motor boat to search for them. They are beginning to realize over there
+that something may have happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Justin ask Betty while you were with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. He simply showed us around, and said he'd walk home with her. Oh,
+the young fool, the young fool. He can risk his own life if he
+chooses&mdash;but he had no right to take&mdash;that child&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The telephone rang, and Sophie, answering, found Justin at the other
+end.</p>
+
+<p>"We're at Gloucester, safe and sound. I'm aw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>fully sorry if you've
+worried, Mrs. Martens. But I could not get to a 'phone before this.
+We'll come back by train, and Betty says you're not to wait dinner.
+We'll get something here. We're all right, really&mdash;only sorry if you are
+upset."</p>
+
+<p>"We are very much upset," Sophie told him, severely. "Anthony is here,
+and he is extremely anxious."</p>
+
+<p>"He needn't worry," grimly. "I can take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martens, explaining the situation to Anthony a few minutes later,
+refrained, tactfully, from giving Justin's exact words.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony dined with her, then went off to see Miss Matthews, who had
+asked him to prescribe for her cold.</p>
+
+<p>"Call me up when Bettina comes," he said, as he left.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie promised, and watched him drive away in his little car. She had
+never seen him so nervous, so irritable. Was this what the thwarting of
+his life would mean&mdash;that he would let go of the serenity which had made
+his presence a benediction to his little world?</p>
+
+<p>Or was it really love for Bettina which so disturbed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> him? Stranger
+things had happened. Diana was away&mdash;Bettina was beautiful&mdash;Justin was
+in the field to measure lances.</p>
+
+<p>With Peter Pan for company, Sophie waited on the porch for the recreant
+pair.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived it was very dark, and she could not see their faces.
+But what had made that difference in their voices&mdash;that subtle,
+thrilling difference?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>GLORY OF YOUTH</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Bettina cried, "I could fly with you,&mdash;forever," the light of a
+great joy leaped in Justin's eyes. But he said nothing; he merely set
+his hand more steadily to steering.</p>
+
+<p>And Bettina was content to be silent; to drift on and on in this golden
+world, where there was just herself and the youth with the shining eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Far beneath them several racing yachts seemed flung like white flower
+petals on the surface of the sea; two girls in red coats on the
+club-house tennis courts made glowing spots of color; the crowds of
+people on the rocks, with their heads upturned to view the fairy ship of
+the air, were as formless and as lacking in life and movement as a
+patchwork quilt.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina felt no wonder. Her mood was one of heavenly enchantment; having
+passed the first gate of the great adventure, no small detail could seem
+strange.</p>
+
+<p>If in those exquisite moments she remembered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> Anthony, she gave no sign.
+Somewhere, perhaps, down there in the darkness, was a weary man working;
+there were sick people; pain was there and suffering. But such things
+belonged to an existence in which she had no part. It was as if she had
+died, and, rising above the earth, looked pityingly on those who still
+struggled and strove.</p>
+
+<p>She had a sudden whimsical memory of a Sunday-school song which had
+appealed to her childish imagination:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I shall have wings, I shall have wings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">I shall have wings, some day&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Years ago she had sung it with a half hundred enthusiastic youngsters.
+Her vision, then, had dealt, somewhat hazily, with golden crowns, with
+plumed pinions, and with ultimate bliss; but never had her imagination
+compassed such a moment as this!</p>
+
+<p>Above the noise of the motor Justin was aware of the lilt of her fresh
+young voice:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I shall have wings, I shall have wings&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The humming wires keyed the hackneyed tune to a sort of celestial
+harmony:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Bright wings of love, from God above,<br /></span>
+<span class="i5">To bear my glad soul away&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Justin glanced down at her rapt face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is&mdash;heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>As she again took up the little song, he joined in, and they finished
+the last verse triumphantly; then they looked at each other and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I used to sing it in Sunday-school," Bettina explained.</p>
+
+<p>"So did I," and these simple sentences, in their uplifted mood, seemed
+fraught with great meaning.</p>
+
+<p>They were beyond the harbor now. Ahead of them and to the right was the
+open sea; to the left, the town, with its church steeples like pin
+points beneath them, its most imposing buildings no bigger than
+mushrooms.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we so very high?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so high, perhaps, as it seems to you. It is perfectly safe."</p>
+
+<p>On and on they went, leaving the lighthouse behind them, leaving behind
+them the harbor and the town, passing, finally, the great forest through
+which they had raced in the rain.</p>
+
+<p>Then Justin had asked, "Do you remember?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And Bettina had answered, "Shall I ever forget?"</p>
+
+<p>The gulls circled below them, uttering mewing cries. It was as if they
+protested against the intrusion of this bird man and bird woman in a
+realm which had belonged to winged things since the world began.</p>
+
+<p>They came presently to a long and lonely stretch of beach, above which
+Justin sailed, low, and, relaxing his vigilance for the first time, he
+began his eager wooing&mdash;all fire and rapture.</p>
+
+<p>And Bettina trembled&mdash;and listened.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to her that throughout her life she had waited to hear that
+which Justin was saying to her now.</p>
+
+<p>"You were made for me&mdash;dear. In my dreams there has always been a girl
+like you&mdash;little and white and helpless&mdash;but vivid, too, in flashes.
+When I saw you for the first time in that dark room on that rainy day I
+knew that you were&mdash;mine. I know I'm not good enough for you. I know
+that if you should ever marry me I should thank God on my knees every
+day of my life. But it isn't conceit which makes me believe that you and
+I have been coming toward each other always. I don't know why you gave
+me back the silver ring. At this moment I don't care&mdash;although the other
+night my world went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> to pieces&mdash;but just now, what you said,&mdash;and the
+way you said it, that you would fly with me forever,&mdash;made me feel that
+all the things I had hoped were true&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina felt as if their souls were bared. What conventional thing could
+she say which would hide her joy? Her eyes would tell him though her
+lips might not.</p>
+
+<p>As if he read her thoughts he bent down to her. "Look at me," he urged,
+and again, "My dear one&mdash;is it, then, really&mdash;true?"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>She knew now that she was Justin's and he was hers until the end of
+time. By all the white wonder of her thoughts she knew it. By all the
+quickened blood in her beating heart. What she had felt for Anthony was
+the affection of an unawakened nature&mdash;she had given him gratitude,
+friendship&mdash;but between them were the years across which she must look
+somewhat timidly; between them was his sadness, which oppressed her, and
+his profession, which she feared.</p>
+
+<p>But here was youth, which she understood, and romance, for which she had
+longed, and love at white-heat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thus, as she soared with Justin, she forgot past promises and future
+judgments, and whispered, "It is true&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>After that they talked in the language of youth and love.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how pretty you are?"</p>
+
+<p>"You think that I am pretty because you&mdash;like me."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it because I&mdash;love you."</p>
+
+<p>The echo of their light laughter went trailing after them as the song of
+a lark trails through the blue.</p>
+
+<p>Softly, at last, Justin brought his shining ship down to the surface of
+a little bay.</p>
+
+<p>Two men at work on the beach came out in a dory in answer to his call.</p>
+
+<p>They were eager and curious, and glad to tow the queer craft into
+shallow water, to make it fast, and to watch it for a time.</p>
+
+<p>"We will walk about for a bit," Justin said to Bettina, "and go back at
+sunset."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina demurred. "It's really late now," she said, with her eyes on the
+eastern horizon, where the first gray haze of twilight was beginning to
+gather.</p>
+
+<p>"Look the other way. There's all the gold of the west, and it won't be
+dark for hours."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But Sophie will worry."</p>
+
+<p>"She will think you're with Anthony&mdash;he's nice and safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps some one will have seen us, and have told her, and anyhow, I
+must get back for dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"Any one may eat a dinner, but for you and me there may never be another
+moment like this!"</p>
+
+<p>Following a steep path they came presently to a curious and lonely spot.
+Here was an ancient burying place. On a rocky headland, overlooking the
+entrance to the harbor and the wide sweep of the sea beyond, the first
+dead of the colony had been buried; here lay the forefathers of the
+town. Many of the stones had fallen; others stood sturdily where they
+had stood for centuries. Strange old stones they were, of gray slate,
+etched with forbidding symbols of skulls and crossbones.</p>
+
+<p>In one corner was a monument of later erection. It had to do with the
+memory of more than a hundred men who had been lost in a September gale
+off the fishing banks.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina shivered as she read the carved history.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how did the women stand it," she said, "to come here to the top of
+this hill, week after week, watching? To wonder and worry and fear. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+wake in the middle of the night and know that their husbands and lovers
+were out in the blackness and storm. And then at last to see the boats
+coming in, and not know whether the ones they loved were on board&mdash;to
+find, perhaps, at last, that they were not on board. How did they stand
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"As you would have stood it, if you had been one of them&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Would I?" wistfully. "Do you think I could be brave and patient?"</p>
+
+<p>"You could be everything that is good and beautiful&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She did not smile or blush. All the glamour of their flight had fallen
+from her. The old cemetery with its gruesome headstones oppressed her.
+The purple shadows of the twilight seemed to circle the world.</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered and one little hand caught at the sleeve of Justin's coat.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced down at her. "My dear one, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Her frightened eyes pleaded. "I&mdash;I don't like it here. I'm afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"With me&mdash;silly. You weren't afraid up there in the clouds."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p><p>"This is&mdash;different. It seems down here as if the whole world
+were&mdash;dead&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You're tired. Look here, I'm going to carry you up this hill."</p>
+
+<p>As he said it, masterfully, she felt herself swept up into his strong
+young arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Put me down!"</p>
+
+<p>He drew his head back to look at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you in a minute. Put me down."</p>
+
+<p>He set her on her feet, and she stood there, swaying, her lips parted.</p>
+
+<p>At last she said, "I love you," but held out her hand as if to keep him
+from her. "I love you&mdash;but I mustn't let you&mdash;love me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;oh, Justin," she was stripping off her gloves, "oh, I've tried
+to hide these," pitifully, "to hide these from you. I wanted my little
+moment of happiness, too. But now you've got to know."</p>
+
+<p>The gloves were off, and the last rays of the setting sun, striking the
+great jewels, brought fire which seemed to blind Justin's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He caught her hands in his, roughly. "Who gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> them to you?" he
+demanded. "Who gave them to you, Bettina?"</p>
+
+<p>But all his doubts and fears had crystallized to certainty before she
+whispered, "Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that you are going to marry&mdash;Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded. "He loves me, Justin."</p>
+
+<p>"And you love him?"</p>
+
+<p>Her head went up. "I told you just now that&mdash;I loved&mdash;you. But I've
+promised Anthony. He asked me that day before I went to Diana's. The day
+after I first saw you. And he was so good, and I was so lonely, that I
+thought that&mdash;I cared. I didn't know then what it meant&mdash;to care."</p>
+
+<p>His eyes, which had been stern, softened.</p>
+
+<p>"And now that you know," he asked, "what are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>She twisted her fingers nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," she faltered. "What shall I do, Justin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear," he said, brokenly, "Anthony is my friend. I can't steal
+you&mdash;like a thief&mdash;in the night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips quivered. "I knew that&mdash;you'd say that. I am glad&mdash;you&mdash;said
+it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He turned away. "If you knew how hard it is for me to say it."</p>
+
+<p>She laid her little hand on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"If you only won't be angry with me."</p>
+
+<p>He turned back to her. "I am not angry," he said, "only I have been&mdash;all
+sorts of a fool."</p>
+
+<p>She sank down hopelessly on a broken stone bench, backed by evergreen
+trees. "You haven't been a fool," she said. "I should have told you. But
+I couldn't. Diana wouldn't let me."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 408px;">
+<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="408" height="600" alt="SHE SANK DOWN HOPELESSLY" title="SHE SANK DOWN HOPELESSLY" />
+</div>
+
+<p>"What did Diana have to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said that Anthony's friends ought to know me before the engagement
+was announced."</p>
+
+<p>"So you and she have talked it over, and Sophie, I suppose&mdash;and how many
+others?" His laugh was not good to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please. I don't think any of us could have guessed that&mdash;things
+would have turned out like this. I didn't dream how you felt and how I
+felt until the other night, when you tried to give me the little ring.
+Then I knew."</p>
+
+<p>"That you loved me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. That you loved me. I&mdash;I didn't know the other until to-day when you
+said&mdash;'Come.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you know that day in the rain?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, <i>no</i>. I thought it was just because we were both young, and
+good friends, and happy together."</p>
+
+<p>"And I thought it was because our spirits met&mdash;in the storm."</p>
+
+<p>He flung himself down beside her. "To me the whole thing seems
+monstrous. Anthony is years too old for you, even if you loved him. And
+you don't love him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I can't break a promise, can I?"</p>
+
+<p>He moved restlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you told him, he would release you, of course. But somehow I'd feel
+an awful cad to have Anthony think that I had taken you from him."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you think I should feel?" The color flamed in her cheeks. "Don't
+you know that a woman has just as fine a sense of honor in such things
+as a man?"</p>
+
+<p>As she made a movement to rise, he caught at the floating ends of her
+white veil, and held them, as if he would thus anchor her to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I'm afraid I'm too desperately unhappy to
+know what I am saying."</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;I'm unhappy, too."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With the fatalism of youth they had accepted their tragedy as final. He
+still held the end of her veil in his hand, but her face was turned away
+from him.</p>
+
+<p>A little breeze came from the west, and there was a dark line of cloud
+below the gold.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have to go home on the train," Justin said, as he noted the
+whitecaps beyond the bay. "There's too much wind to make it safe for us
+to fly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we must go now. It is very late."</p>
+
+<p>"I can telephone Sophie from the gatekeeper's house. It's on the other
+side of the church. And I'll telephone to the men to come after the
+hydro-plane."</p>
+
+<p>She assented listlessly, and they walked on.</p>
+
+<p>The church, when they reached it, showed itself an ancient edifice.
+Built of English brick, it had withstood the storms of years. Its bell
+still rang clearly the call to Sunday service, and at its font were
+baptized the descendants of the men who slept in the old cemetery.</p>
+
+<p>As they reached the steps, a man who was digging a grave hailed them.
+"If you and your wife would like to look in," he said to Justin, "you
+can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> bring the key to me at the gate. I'll be there when you come."</p>
+
+<p>He unlocked the door for them. They heard his retreating footsteps, and
+knew that they were alone. Then Justin spoke with quickened breath.
+"That is as it should be&mdash;my wife&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Out of a long silence she whispered, "Please&mdash;we must not&mdash;we must
+not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely we have a right to happiness&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She had left his side, and her voice seemed to come faintly from among
+the shadows: "Hasn't everybody a right to happiness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we think of everybody&mdash;it is my happiness and yours which
+concerns us&mdash;sweetheart."</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer, and, following her, he found that she had entered
+one of the high-backed, old-fashioned pews, and was on her knees.</p>
+
+<p>Hesitating, he presently knelt beside her.</p>
+
+<p>It was very still in the old church&mdash;the old, old church, with its
+history of sorrow and stress and storm. One final blaze of light
+illumined the stained glass window above the altar, and touched the bent
+heads with glory&mdash;the bright uncovered head and the veiled one beside
+it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then again came dimness, darkness&mdash;silence.</p>
+
+<p>They were in the vestibule of the church before he spoke to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you pray," he asked, "for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I prayed for all men and women&mdash;who love&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He laid his hands on her shoulders and gazed down at her with all of his
+heart in his sad young eyes. "There must be some way out of this," he
+said. "Surely God can't be so cruel as to keep us apart. Why, we are so
+young, dear one, and there's all of life before us&mdash;think of all the
+years."</p>
+
+<p>The look with which she met his glance had in it all the steadfastness
+of awakened womanhood. "You said out there that I could be brave and
+patient. Help me to be brave&mdash;big brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," he said, hoarsely; "don't call me that. It's got to be all or
+nothing. But whatever comes, whether you marry me or marry Anthony&mdash;I'm
+going to love you always. I'm going to love you until I die, Bettina."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>PENANCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Miss Matthews' cold proved to be bronchitis, and Bettina insisted on
+nursing her.</p>
+
+<p>"Please let me," she said to Anthony the morning after her flight with
+Justin. "I suppose I'm in disgrace, anyhow, and this shall be my
+penance. Only it won't be very severe punishment, for I shall love to
+take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>"What good is penance if you aren't penitent? I'm perfectly sure that if
+that young rascal should ask you to go again you'd go."</p>
+
+<p>"It was glorious."</p>
+
+<p>"But very dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged. "You do dangerous things every day. Doesn't he, Sophie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"That's different. I do such things to help others."</p>
+
+<p>"And I do them to please myself."</p>
+
+<p>"And to please Justin?" There was an impatient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> note in his voice. "I
+have told him that he must not ask you again, Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't say a word." Anthony smiled at the memory. "He just looked at
+me as if he would like to punch my head, and turned on his heel and left
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you angry with him?" anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"He's angry with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" Betty sighed. "Sophie gave me a terrible lecture when I came
+home last night; didn't you, Sophie? And now you and Justin have fallen
+out, and I'm the cause of all the trouble. I'll go and look after Letty
+Matthews, and you can learn to love me when I'm gone."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the lightness of her tone, there was a quiver in her voice
+which brought both of them to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>"Betty dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Bettina smiled at them with misty eyes. "Please let me go, and when I
+come back everything will be straightened out&mdash;and we'll all
+live&mdash;happy&mdash;ever after&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing that they could say would change her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> decision, and they were
+vaguely troubled by it, feeling that she had erected between herself and
+them some barrier of reserve which they could not break down.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie voiced this in a worried way when Bettina had gone up to pack the
+little bag which Anthony was to convey with her precious self to Miss
+Matthews. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said so much, but when she came she
+seemed so unconscious of the dreadfulness and danger that I'm afraid I
+scolded a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"She's such a child! Do you think she will ever grow up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Diana feels that she has many womanly qualities&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Anthony, standing by the window, fixed his eyes steadily on the blue
+distance as he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you hear&mdash;from Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've a letter." Sophie rummaged among the papers on her desk. "And
+there's a bit at the end that will please you&mdash;you know Diana and her
+enthusiasms&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His head was still turned away as she opened the thick folded sheets.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Shall I read it to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please."</p>
+
+<p>"She says she likes the hotel, and the people, although she doesn't see
+much of them. But this is the part you'll appreciate:</p>
+
+<p>"'There's a wonderful bit of woodland, Sophie, back in the hills, and
+every day I go there and dream. I thought for a while that I had lost my
+dreams&mdash;but now they are coming to me again in flocks&mdash;like doves. And
+yesterday came the best dream of all. I have been trying to think what I
+could do with my future, and I've thought of this: I'll build a place up
+here in the forest where Anthony's sick folk can come when they begin to
+get well, and thus I can finish the work which he begins&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>She paused, as Anthony faced her. "Why didn't she write that to me?" he
+demanded, almost roughly. "Didn't she know it would mean more to me than
+to you&mdash;than to anybody&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>Then with the sudden consciousness that he was showing his heart he
+stammered, "Forgive me&mdash;but you know what I think&mdash;of Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>Sophie was infinitely tactful. "Of course I know what you think of
+her&mdash;she's the most wonderful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> woman in the whole wide world; and that's
+a great plan of hers&mdash;to have a haven for your convalescents."</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer, but just stood very still, looking out, and when
+Bettina came down with her little bag, they went away together.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews in a gray flannel wrapper was shivering over an inadequate
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Why aren't you in bed?" the doctor asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because there is no one to answer my bell, and no one to wait on
+me&mdash;and I'm perfectly sure that if I ever let myself go to bed I shall
+die."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," briskly. "I've brought Betty back with me, and she's going
+to stay and see that you're made comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews' face brightened. "She's the only person in the world that
+I'd have fussing over me."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall stay here and boss you to my heart's content," Bettina told
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear," Miss Matthews sighed rapturously, "how good that sounds.
+I&mdash;I want to be bossed. I'm so tired of telling other people what to
+do&mdash;that last day at school I thought I should go to pieces."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're not going to pieces," Anthony as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>sured her; "you're going
+to bed. And when I come back I shall expect to find you asleep."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, coaxing Miss Matthews to be comfortable, brushed her hair in
+front of the revived fire.</p>
+
+<p>"What pretty hair you have," she said, as she held it up so that the
+light might shine upon it. "What makes you spoil it by doing it up in
+that tight knot?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know any other way," wailed Miss Matthews. "I've never had time
+to be pretty."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to braid it," said Bettina, "and by evening it will be
+waved."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews submitted, luxuriously. "It seems so nice to have some one
+fussing over me. I don't believe anybody ever brushed my hair before."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, having hunted out a box of her own belongings, was trying
+different colored ribbons on the little lady's pale brown locks.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Letty, pink is your color? Yes, it is. Blue makes you look
+ghastly. Now I'm going to tie this twice around your head so that it
+will hide all the tight pigtails&mdash;I got that idea from Diana."</p>
+
+<p>As she finished the somewhat elaborate process, there came steps
+outside.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's just me," said the voice of the little captain.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina peeped through the door, and announced; "Miss Matthews is sick."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I met Anthony Blake, and he told me; and what I want to know
+is, can I do anything&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing&mdash;thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he can," said the hoarse voice of the invalid. "He can come in. If
+he doesn't mind my head, I shan't mind him."</p>
+
+<p>The captain, entering, found Miss Matthews in a big chair, her feet
+covered by a steamer rug, her gray flannel apparel hidden by a white
+wool shawl which had belonged to Betty's mother, and topping all was the
+wonderful head-dress of rose-colored ribbon, beneath which Miss
+Matthews' plain little peaked face looked out wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now," said the captain, as he shook hands, "that pink becomes
+her, don't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews blushed. "Betty fixed it."</p>
+
+<p>"I always did like bright things on wimmen," said the captain,
+earnestly, "and I like that pink."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you do," said Betty; "all men like pink, except those who
+like blue, and now you must go away, for I've got to put my patient to
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you cook anything for her," said the cap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>tain, as he backed out
+of the door, his eyes still gloating over the rosy-beribboned lady on
+the hearth-rug. "I'll bring you over a bowl of hot chowder to-night, and
+if there's anything else you want, you just let me know."</p>
+
+<p>"Delia will look out for the other things," said Betty; "she's going to
+send little Jane to help me. But we shall be very glad to have the
+chowder."</p>
+
+<p>With Miss Matthews asleep at last, Bettina sat down to write a note to
+Justin.</p>
+
+<p>It was very brief, and began abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to tell Anthony. I lay awake all night and thought it out.
+It wouldn't be fair for me to marry him&mdash;unless he knew. I'd get to be
+just a shivery shadow, Justin, afraid that he would find that I didn't
+love him&mdash;that I loved somebody else.</p>
+
+<p>"But I can never tell him with his grave eyes watching me, so I'm going
+to write, now&mdash;to-night. It almost seems as if poor Letty had been made
+a sort of instrument of Providence so that I could be here at this time.
+I couldn't stay at Diana's with everything over between me&mdash;and Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Justin, will he ever want to be friends with us again? Will Diana
+ever forgive us?</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you were here. Yet you mustn't be here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>&mdash;not until everything
+is settled. Somehow I don't dare think that we can ever be happy. It
+doesn't seem right to think of it, does it?</p>
+
+<p>"<i>But I love you.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>She gave her note to the little captain when he came with the chowder.</p>
+
+<p>He brought something beside the chowder. In a square box, smelling of
+sandalwood, was an exquisite kimono of palest pink cr&ecirc;pe, embroidered
+with wisteria blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been lying in an old trunk for years," he exulted, as he shook
+it out before her delighted eyes. "When I saw her," he nodded toward the
+door of the inner room, "when I saw her with that pink ribbon in her
+hair, it just came to me how nice it would be if she had a wrapper or
+somethin' to go with it. And after I got home I went rummagin' around
+until I found this."</p>
+
+<p>"It's lovely," said Bettina; "she'll be simply crazy over it, captain."</p>
+
+<p>"The funny part of it is that I bought it in foreign lands, thinking
+that some day I might get married, and I'd give it to my wife&mdash;and now
+I'm givin' it to her."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina sparkled. "Oh," she said, "I believe you're in love with her,
+captain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The captain sat down in a chair by the fire. "Well," he said earnestly,
+"it's like this. I ain't ever thought of her that way, exactly. It
+always seemed to me that she knew so much, and that I was such a rough
+old fellow. But lately&mdash;well, she's been lonely, and she ain't been
+well. And all of a sudden it has kind o' seemed to me that, if I ain't
+smart, I've got a tender heart, and I'd know how to make a soft nest for
+her to live in, and it seems to me that maybe, after all, she might
+throw me in along with all the rest of the reasons for getting married.
+I guess most men are sort of thrown in. Of course the wimmen don't know
+it, but what they get married for is to have a parlor of their own, and
+a kitchen of their own, and somebody to fuss over, and it don't make
+much difference what man they hang their tender affections on, just so
+he provides the kitchen and parlor. Now here's Letty Matthews, all tired
+out with teaching, and this is my time to step in. If she'll ever take
+me she'll take me now, and as soon as she's well enough to hear me say
+it, I'm going to ask her."</p>
+
+<p>"If Letty marries you, it will be because she loves you&mdash;she's that
+kind. She'd die sooner than take a man for what he could give her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The captain's face fell. "Oh, Lord," he groaned, "she won't take me just
+for&mdash;myself&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You try and see."</p>
+
+<p>"If you can put in a good word for me," the captain urged anxiously,
+"you do it."</p>
+
+<p>"When a man wants to marry a woman," said his young adviser, "there's
+just one way to get her. He must just keep at it, captain."</p>
+
+<p>The captain stood up. "Well, what I want to say is this&mdash;I shan't ever
+look at my garden without thinking of her sittin' some day among the
+flowers, I shan't ever eat a meal without thinking how nice she'd look
+pourin' out my coffee in a nice bright dress, and I shan't ever go for a
+day's fishin' without seein' her in the other end of the boat. And every
+time I shut my eyes, I'll think of her wearin' pretty things like my
+mother used to wear. Why, I've got money, that I can't ever use, just
+lying in the bank and waitin' for somebody to come and spend it. And
+while I like my own way of doin' things, I can get a likely man to help
+around the house."</p>
+
+<p>"A man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yep. I couldn't ever boss a maid. And I ain't goin' to let her"&mdash;he
+jerked his head toward the inner door&mdash;"I ain't goin' to let her drudge
+and cook and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> scrub. So I'll get some lad that's been a ship's cook, and
+don't like the sea, and we'll keep things nice for her, and she can fuss
+around the garden and make calls on the neighbors and sit with me when I
+smoke. For wimmen, after all," concluded the wise little man, "are liked
+best by the men when they'll listen. A talkin' woman may catch a man,
+but the kind that holds him is the kind that sits and listens."</p>
+
+<p>He went away after that, and Bettina carried the pink robe to Miss
+Matthews. "Oh, Letty, dear," she said, "just see how gorgeous you're
+going to be."</p>
+
+<p>She opened the box, and let out a whiff of foreign fragrance. But when
+the beautiful pale-tinted thing was laid across the bed, and Bettina had
+explained that it was the captain's gift, Miss Matthews looked solemnly
+at her friend. "If you think I'm going to wear that," she croaked,
+hoarsely, "you're mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you're going to wear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I'm not. I&mdash;I'd be afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid&mdash;oh, Letty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I would. I've never worn such things. I'd be afraid I'd get a spot
+on it, and it wouldn't come out. Now when a woman like me has a thing
+like that she just lays it away to look at. Then she always knows that
+she has one lovely garment. But if she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> wears it, she feels that the day
+will come when it will be gone, and then&mdash;she won't own one beautiful
+thing in the wide world&mdash;not one single beautiful thing."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina bent over her soothingly. "There," she said, "you wear it once,
+Letty, and then, if you wish, you can put it away."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Late at night, Anthony came on his last round of calls and urged that
+Bettina should have a nurse to take her place. But Bettina refused.</p>
+
+<p>"I took care of mother alone," she said. "I can surely do this."</p>
+
+<p>Every moment that she was with him she was conscious of the difference
+in her attitude toward him. She had a nervous fear that he might notice
+the change in her, that he might read her heart with his keen eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But he seemed preoccupied, and just before he went away he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't promised me one thing, Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>"What, Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"That you won't fly again with Justin. I think I shall have to ask that
+you make it a definite promise."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I won't&mdash;promise."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I think you will," he said, in his decided way. "You and I, all through
+our lives, will each have to defer to the wishes of the other. If I knew
+that a thing worried you greatly I am sure I should refrain from doing
+it&mdash;I should like to know that you felt that way about me&mdash;Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>Something of the old tender quality had crept into his voice. Once more
+they were alone in the shadowy room&mdash;but outside now was the darkness of
+the night instead of the darkness of the storm. Perhaps some memory of
+her first impulsive response to his wooing came to him as he took both
+of her hands in his. "There's some barrier between us of late," he said.
+"I'm a plain blunt man, and I don't know what I may have said or done.
+Have I hurt you in any way, child?"</p>
+
+<p>Here was Fate bringing opportunity to her. This was the moment for
+revelation, confession.</p>
+
+<p>But she could not tell him.</p>
+
+<p>She stood before him with bent head.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't hurt me, but there is something I should like to say to
+you. May I write it&mdash;Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>He put a finger under her chin and turned her face up to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid of me&mdash;dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then tell me now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please&mdash;no."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he studied her drooping face, then he patted her on the
+cheek. "Write it if you must&mdash;but you're making me feel like an awful
+bear, Bettina."</p>
+
+<p>He sighed and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>She put out her hand as if to stop him, but drew it back. Then she
+followed him into the hall, and stood watching him, with the light from
+the old lantern again making a halo of her fair hair. But this time she
+did not go down to him in the darkness. The spell was upon her of a pair
+of mocking eyes, and of a voice which had sung with her celestial
+harmonies.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>HER FATHER'S RING</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was late the next night before Bettina found time to write a letter
+to Anthony. The town clock had struck ten, and Miss Matthews was asleep
+in the inner room. As Bettina settled herself at her desk there came
+through the open window the fragrance of the sea&mdash;the night was very
+still; she could hear across the harbor the beat of the music in the
+yacht club ballroom, and there was the tinkle of a mandolin on some
+anchored boat.</p>
+
+<p>She found it difficult to put on paper the things which she decided must
+be said. Striving to explain she tore up sheet after sheet, then,
+growing restless at her repeated failure, she rose from her desk and
+crossed the room to the cabinet in the corner. In one of the drawers was
+a packet of letters from her mother. They were exquisite in phrasing and
+in sentiment. She wondered if she might not borrow from them something
+of their grace.</p>
+
+<p>As she opened the drawer, her eyes fell on the lit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>tle carved box.
+Mechanically she reached for it, and touched the spring. Then she stood
+staring down at her father's ring!</p>
+
+<p>The words which she had once said to Diana echoed insistently in her
+ears: "People who can love many times, who can go from one person to
+another, aren't worth thinking about."</p>
+
+<p>Why&mdash;she was like her father! He had loved once, and then he had loved
+again&mdash;and he had broken her mother's heart!</p>
+
+<p>Shuddering, she flung the ring from her, and it rolled under the
+cabinet. She knelt to grope for it, and, having found it, she shut the
+box. But, like Pandora, she had let out a whole army of evil fancies,
+and they continued to oppress her.</p>
+
+<p>When she went back to her desk she could not write, and at last she put
+away her papers and, wrapping herself in her long white coat, climbed to
+the cupola.</p>
+
+<p>She had slept there many times with her mother. With only the stars
+above them, and on each side a view of the wide stretches of the sea,
+they had talked together, and Bettina had learned the beauty of the
+older woman's nature; having suffered much, she had forgiven everything.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father," she would say, "was like a child<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> seeking the pot of gold
+at the end of the rainbow. He was always looking for romance, forgetting
+that the most wonderful romance is that of the hearthstone and of the
+quiet heart. If he had ever really loved he would have known the joy of
+self-sacrifice, of self-effacement&mdash;but he did not love&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Love is self-sacrifice." Such had been the verdict of the woman who had
+given all, and who had received nothing. It was a hard philosophy,
+acquired after years of dreariness, and the child had listened and
+absorbed and believed. She had heard nothing of love's fulfilment, of
+the raptures of mutual tenderness. Hence she had been content with
+Anthony's somewhat somber wooing, until that moment when she had drifted
+with Justin through infinite space, and had learned the things which
+might be.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of herself as mistress of Anthony's big house by the sea
+weighed heavily upon her. In those great rooms she would move softly for
+the rest of her days. Anthony would work and read and ponder, and when
+he was at Harbor Light she would sit lonely through the gray winter
+evenings, and the sad summer twilights. But with Justin&mdash;oh, the
+limitless possibilities!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With him each day would bring its wealth of vivid experience&mdash;there
+would be always the glory of his strength, the uplift of his radiant
+youth!</p>
+
+<p>She put the vision from her. So had her father striven for joy, and he
+had missed all the great meanings of life&mdash;and she would not be like her
+father.</p>
+
+<p>The wind was rising, and wailed fretfully above the waters. The stars
+were blotted out.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina shivered. What a dark world it was!</p>
+
+<p>She rose and went down-stairs. Again she sat down to her desk. But this
+time she wrote rapidly, and the letter that she wrote was not to
+Anthony!</p>
+
+<p>When she had sealed and stamped it, she crept down the shadowy stairway,
+thence to the narrow street.</p>
+
+<p>The mail box was at the corner, and she sped toward it; as she came back
+on flying feet, a whisper reached her from the darkness of the garden&mdash;a
+whisper which made her heart stand still.</p>
+
+<p>"Betty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Justin</i>&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He emerged from the shadows. "I didn't dare to hope I should see you. I
+ran away from the yacht club dance&mdash;and I'm due back there now. But I
+wanted you. I think I must have wished so hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> that I wished you here.
+I wouldn't ring for fear I should wake poor Miss Matthews."</p>
+
+<p>His eager whisper met no like response. "You shouldn't have come," she
+said, dully.</p>
+
+<p>He bent down to look at her. Under the light from the street lamp he
+could see the disorder of her fair hair, the frightened look in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear one&mdash;what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't call me that. Did you get my letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. That's why I came&mdash;I knew that by this time you would have written
+to Anthony&mdash;that you were&mdash;free&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I haven't written to Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't? Wasn't that the letter you just mailed?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;I was mailing a letter to you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A sudden fear clutched him. "What did you have to say to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That&mdash;oh, Justin, I can't give Anthony up&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;&mdash;We can't talk here. Come up-stairs quietly&mdash;we mustn't disturb
+Letty."</p>
+
+<p>She glided ahead of him, and when he came into the shadowy room she was
+standing by the cabinet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've something to show you," she said, and opened the carved box and
+held it out to him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's my father's ring," she said; "he broke my mother's heart&mdash;and I
+won't break Anthony's."</p>
+
+<p>Then, in halting sentences, she told him how that day she had come upon
+the ring. She told him her mother's history. And he listened, and
+insisted at last, tenderly, that she had made mountains out of
+mole-hills. But he found her obstinate.</p>
+
+<p>"I must not break my promise," she insisted. "Happiness could never come
+to us."</p>
+
+<p>And, white and wistful in the face of his flaming arguments, she held to
+her determination until he left her.</p>
+
+<p>He had turned away wrathfully, and had reached the top of the winding
+stairway, when he heard her sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>He came back swiftly, and gathered her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"You're mine," he said, holding her close. "You know that, Betty."</p>
+
+<p>She drew back from him. "Please," she begged, and so he let her go, and
+made his way blindly out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews sleeping feverishly, became aware<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> above the sighing of
+the wind of an intermittent sound of woe.</p>
+
+<p>She sat up and listened, put one foot out of bed, then the other, and
+throwing on her old gray wrapper, wavered toward the threshold of the
+door between the two rooms.</p>
+
+<p>By the flickering light of the candle which burned on Bettina's desk she
+could see the little shaking white figure on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Betty child," she said in a hoarse whisper, "dear child&mdash;what's the
+matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," Bettina sat up and pushed her hair back from her tear-wet face,
+"oh, I've waked you up. I think I just forgot that there was any one in
+the whole wide world except myself&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The expression on her tragic face told keen Miss Matthews that there was
+some deep trouble which needed help.</p>
+
+<p>"You come right into my room," she said. "I don't dare stay up another
+minute. But I couldn't sleep if I tried, with a storm coming, and you
+can tell me all about it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But when she was settled luxuriously once more among her pillows, and
+with Betty curled up at the foot of the bed, an awkward silence fell
+between them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At last Betty said, "Justin Ford was here. He's in love with
+me&mdash;Letty&mdash;but I sent him away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you send him away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;because I'm not going to marry him, Letty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There's some one else. Some one who gave me these&mdash;Letty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She lifted her left hand with its burden of sparkling jewels.</p>
+
+<p>"Who on earth?" Miss Matthews demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony <i>Blake</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews dropped back limply.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to tell me from the beginning," she said, faintly. "I can't
+quite grasp it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And Bettina told&mdash;of her loneliness, of Anthony's wonderful offer, and
+of her glad acceptance of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your mother would have been delighted," Miss Matthews said; "but
+somehow it doesn't seem right."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'd fixed it up that you were going to marry Justin Ford. Captain
+Stubbs and I watched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> you that day we went fishing, and if ever two
+young things seemed to be in love&mdash;well&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;we are in love, Letty."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why in the world are you going to marry Anthony Blake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I've promised&mdash;and I can't be like my&mdash;father. And I can't hurt
+Anthony&mdash;not when he has been so good to me."</p>
+
+<p>She was sobbing again, and into the eyes of the little woman who had
+never had a daughter came a look of motherly solicitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child," she said, "if you are just going to marry Anthony Blake
+because you are grateful, don't you do it. No man wants a woman who
+feels that way&mdash;and you wouldn't make him happy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I've sent Justin away&mdash;and he's angry with me. That is why I was
+crying when you found me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was on her knees now beside the bed, and the old maid's arms were
+about her.</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;there, dearie, you've thought too much about it, and you've come
+to believe that it's the things you like to do which are wrong. And it's
+really the other way."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews was thinking rapidly. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> some mystery. Anthony
+Blake was in love with Diana Gregory. He had always been in love with
+her. No one need try to tell her that he was not, for she <i>knew</i>. Then
+why was he engaged to Betty, and why had Diana gone away?</p>
+
+<p>She had a sudden inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Betty, there's just one person who can straighten things out,
+and that person is Diana Gregory. Men aren't any good at a time like
+this. They think with their heads, but women think with their hearts,
+and that's the kind of thinking that you need most now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Letty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews waved her away. "You go and write to Diana and mail it
+to-night, and then come back and keep me company. I'm afraid of the
+storm."</p>
+
+<p>It was at that very moment that Anthony was also writing to Diana. When
+he had left Bettina he had gone straight to Harbor Light and into a
+little inner office where he was guarded from all intruders by the
+assistant who sat in the anteroom. Not even a telephone could sound its
+insistent note in this place where the doctor gained, in a reclining
+chair, his few brief moments of rest, or where he worked out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> the
+intricacies of perplexing problems. Now and then he saw a patient there,
+but rarely. Usually he shut his door against all distracting influences,
+and gave his attention to the things which concerned himself alone.</p>
+
+<p>What Sophie had told him about Diana had sent his thoughts flying to the
+wonder-woman up there in the woods. Even when he had talked to Bettina
+he had felt the consciousness of his thought of her.</p>
+
+<p>Out of a full heart he wrote, holding back nothing, and when he had
+sealed and stamped his bulky missive, he, like Bettina, went forth to
+mail it.</p>
+
+<p>As he passed through the garden a sudden gust of wind scattered a shower
+of rose petals in his path. That there were storms in the distance was
+evidenced by the low rumble of thunder and the vivid flashes of light.</p>
+
+<p>It was on nights like this that his patients grew restless&mdash;poor
+abnormal things they were, afraid of life, afraid of death, seeing in
+wind and rain and in the battle of the elements the terrors of the
+supernatural.</p>
+
+<p>But the night fitted in with Anthony's mood. He still wore his white
+linen office coat. His hat was off, and his gray hair was blown back
+from his fore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>head. The salt air exhilarated him. He felt a sudden
+lightness of heart. He wanted to shout like a boy. He had been grave for
+so long&mdash;but now his message had gone forth to Diana&mdash;to-morrow she
+would read it, and in two short days the answer would come.</p>
+
+<p>He made his way to the beach; the vivid flashes showed the heaving
+blackness of the waters&mdash;the waves came in with a sullen roar.</p>
+
+<p>He thought of the night when he had stood there with Diana, and when the
+moon had made a silver track. To-night there was no light&mdash;except
+Minot's&mdash;like a star. "I-love-you," it said to the lonely man who stood
+there in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>From somewhere in the garden a voice called him, then a nurse came
+running.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you go out," she panted; "perhaps you'd better come, doctor&mdash;they
+are getting all worked up about the storm."</p>
+
+<p>Thus was his life made up of duty. There was never an uninterrupted
+moment. His strength was always being drawn upon to uphold the weakness
+of others. To-night his whole nature craved the tumult of the wild
+night. Yet he must calm himself to meet the needs of those who leaned
+upon him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he turned to follow the nurse, a big car whirled through the gate,
+and there sounded the trilling laughter of girls, the deeper jovial bass
+of young men.</p>
+
+<p>Beneath the brilliantly-lighted entrance of Harbor Light the car
+stopped, and as Anthony came up, Sara and Doris descended with much
+shaking out of filmy dancing frocks.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie, with seeming unconsciousness of the havoc which the rain had
+wrought on her lovely black gown, made a smiling explanation to Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"Justin and Bobbie tried to get the top up&mdash;but something caught and I
+thought we should all be drenched. And then your Harbor Light shone out
+to welcome us&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Anthony was glad that they had come. He craved the lightness and
+brightness. He seemed suddenly to be one of them again&mdash;not a sad and
+somber being set apart. He had a sense of relief in Bettina's absence.
+It was as if her youth and beauty showed the contrast of his age.</p>
+
+<p>He took them up to his sitting-room, then excused himself to make his
+rounds. "I'm going to have something sent up for you to eat&mdash;I know what
+slim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> fare they give at the club on the nights of the dances. I'll be
+with you soon."</p>
+
+<p>While they waited for him Sara played; Bobbie and Doris danced&mdash;and
+Justin talked with Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>He looked worn and white, and a line cut deeply into his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"I owe you an apology," he said, "for yesterday. But I couldn't help it.
+Bettina was so little and lovely&mdash;you know I wouldn't harm a hair of her
+head&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Something in his voice made Sophie lay her hand on his. "My dear boy, my
+dear boy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm awfully hard hit," he said, "but she&mdash;she's turned me down. I fancy
+it was our last flight together. Do you remember Browning's 'Last
+Ride'&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'And heaven just prove that I and she,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Ride, ride&mdash;together&mdash;forever ride&mdash;&mdash;'?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Well, my heaven will be a place where she and I shall drift through
+infinite space&mdash;together&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stood up. Sara was coming toward them&mdash;a brilliant little figure in a
+flame-colored gown.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to bore you with my worries," Justin said,
+quickly&mdash;"but&mdash;I&mdash;I wish you'd be awfully good&mdash;to Bettina."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sophie carried away with her that night the vision of his tragic young
+face, and before she went to bed she wrote to Diana, and her letter
+ended thus:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dearest girl, oh, dearest girl, what have we done, what have we
+done&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE "GRAY GULL"</h3>
+
+
+<p>The morning after the storm Justin went forth, moodily, for his morning
+flight.</p>
+
+<p>He found opposition, however, to his ascension. "Wait until the
+afternoon," was the advice given him; "there's a nasty wind."</p>
+
+<p>He would not listen, but he delayed his departure, preferring to start
+alone, and eventually the other aviators drifted off, and he made the
+"Gray Gull" ready.</p>
+
+<p>Going down to the pier for a last peep at the weather, he was hailed by
+Captain Stubbs.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to take Anthony Blake out for a day's fishin'," the little
+man said, as his motor boat chugged comfortably within easy talking
+distance. "He telephoned last night that he wanted a day away from his
+work, and I said that the fish would be running after the rain. I'm
+always mighty glad to have him go with me. He's a born fisherman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> His
+great-grandfather and mine fished together on the banks, and our
+grandfathers were part owners in the same schooner. But Anthony's father
+went to the city and studied medicine, and his son followed in his
+footsteps, so that's the way the Blake boys got switched off from
+fishin' as a business. But it's in their blood."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," Justin interrupted, "I want to ask you a question, captain,
+and it's about Anthony. Did you ever think he was in love with Diana
+Gregory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," the captain meditated, "I ain't ever thought much about it. But
+Miss Matthews sees a lot, and she told me once that Anthony Blake
+wouldn't ever look at any other woman but Diana, and that Diana was just
+keeping him on the string."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't exactly fancy Diana as that sort of woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it ain't anything against a woman that she don't know her own
+mind," was the captain's philosophical reflection. "Most men don't know
+their own mind when it comes to marryin'. Only the difference is this: a
+man loses his head and asks a girl, and then he wonders if she's going
+to make him happy. And a woman hesitates about sayin' 'Yes,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> but when
+she once decides, she sticks to a man through thick and thin."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his gloom Justin smiled. "Where did you learn it all,
+captain? You are as wise as if you had been married to a half dozen
+wives."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a sayin'," the captain explained, "that a sailor has a wife in
+every port. That ain't true. Sailors as a rule are constant men. But
+they see a lot of wimmen creatures, and they learn that there ain't much
+difference, when it comes to lovin', between a Spanish lady who flirts
+with her eyes, and a Boston lady who flirts with her brain. They're all
+after the same thing, and that's a home, with a big H, and it's a credit
+to them that they are&mdash;otherwise we men wouldn't ever know when to
+settle down."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet it's because of a woman that some of us never settle down."
+Justin's young eyes were looking out stormily upon the gray world. "It's
+because of some woman that we wander and are never satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>The little captain gave him a keen glance. "Well, you won't ever have to
+worry," he said; "all you've got to do is to keep at it till you find
+the right woman. That's what that Betty child said to me the other day.
+'Captain, if a man wants a woman, he's got to keep after her until she
+says 'Yes.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did Betty Dolce say that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;she's a smart little thing."</p>
+
+<p>But Justin's thoughts were not of her "smartness" but of her pathetic
+loveliness. All night her sobs had echoed in his heart. When he had
+driven his gay party home after their stop at Anthony's, he had ridden
+for miles alone in the storm. He had welcomed the beat of the rain in
+his face. He had yearned for some adventure which would shut out that
+vision of the shadowy room.</p>
+
+<p>But no adventure had been forthcoming, and so he had sought his uneasy
+couch, and had tried to sleep, and had risen at the first crow of cocks.</p>
+
+<p>He brought his mind back with difficulty to the captain. "I'm going up
+this morning, captain. I'll wigwag to you and Anthony if you're
+outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you go," the little captain advised earnestly; "this isn't any
+morning to fly. There's all sorts of storms about, and you can't tell
+what minute you'll get into one."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you like to sail your ship in a storm&mdash;didn't you like the
+excitement of it&mdash;the battle with the wind and waves?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's different. I knew my ship was seaworthy. I knew what I had to
+face in an ordinary storm. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> you take one of those Chinese typhoons,
+or a hurricane that blew up from the Gulf, and I didn't enjoy it. Not a
+bit. I'd go miles to get out of one, and I learned this, after I had
+looked death in the face a hundred times, that foolhardiness doesn't
+pay. You go slow, and wait for a quiet day."</p>
+
+<p>Justin laughed recklessly. "I'll take my chances."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's no fool like a young fool." The little captain started
+his motor with a jerk, and its comfortable chugging was at once changed
+to an angry snort.</p>
+
+<p>Justin did not at once go back to the sheds. He climbed a path which led
+to the adjoining hotel, and made his way to the writing rooms.</p>
+
+<p>The people who lounged on the porches looked at him curiously as he
+passed. Those who had been there longest whispered to the newcomers the
+magic of his name. More than one girl remarked the beauty of the somber
+young countenance, and the strength of the straight young figure.</p>
+
+<p>In the writing room of the big hotel Justin wrote to Diana. It was his
+last hope. He wrote hurriedly, using the elaborately monogrammed house
+paper, and his script was interspersed with dashes, with now and then a
+boyish blot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When he had finished he went to the desk of the girl in the corridor who
+sold post-cards and magazines, and bought a stamp.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony was delayed, somewhat, in starting out with Captain Stubbs by
+the news that Miss Matthews was worse.</p>
+
+<p>He found her with a high fever, and he also found Bettina in a state of
+agitated apology.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I talked to her too late. But we&mdash;we were afraid of the
+storm."</p>
+
+<p>"She'll be all right in a few hours, but you've got to get some rest.
+I'll send a nurse."</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;Sophie said she would come&mdash;early this afternoon&mdash;and then I can
+sleep&mdash;and I've had little naps on the couch&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As he turned to go he stopped and said, with some hesitation: "You
+didn't write the letter to the Big Bear, Betty."</p>
+
+<p>She blushed. "I'm not going to write it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;I've changed my mind about it&mdash;I've really nothing to tell
+you&mdash;and every woman has a right to change her mind."</p>
+
+<p>She tried to say it saucily, but was not successful, and he, vaguely
+relieved, responded, "I'm glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>&mdash;that you are not troubled," kissed her
+lightly on her forehead, and went away. And she looked after him and
+sighed, and wondered if all the years which stretched before them would
+be as dreary as this.</p>
+
+<p>The arrival of the little captain broke in upon her thoughts. "You give
+her these," he said. "I can't stay a minute. I'm going out with Anthony
+for a day's fishin'."</p>
+
+<p>He rushed away, leaving Bettina with her arms full of pink roses.</p>
+
+<p>She took them in to Miss Matthews. "Letty," she said, "the captain
+brought them. Isn't he romantic? He is making pink your color. I think
+it's dear of him."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews blushed. "I'd surely never have picked out Captain Stubbs
+for the romantic kind, but you never can tell."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you never can tell," Betty agreed, and stood looking idly out of
+the window.</p>
+
+<p>All at once she gave startled attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Letty," she said, "Justin is flying."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Matthews, half asleep, murmured, "Well, I'm glad you're not with
+him," and Bettina, recalled to her obligations to the invalid, answered
+with as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>sumed carelessness, "So am I," and measured out Miss Matthews'
+medicine, and talked no more.</p>
+
+<p>But her heart was beating madly as she followed his flight. He was up
+there&mdash;alone. Up there in that wonderful world! Was he thinking of her?
+Was he hearing, again, those celestial harmonies?</p>
+
+<p>To-day there was no sunshine&mdash;but as he circled against the background
+of moving clouds her thoughts went to that wild hawk in "the wind swept
+sky."</p>
+
+<p>She knew nothing of the danger. She did not know that, as yet, his
+machine was not perfected to a point where it could brave with immunity
+such weather as was threatened by the brooding sky. She only saw his
+flight&mdash;and her hurt heart craved the place which had been hers for a
+few brief moments of rapture.</p>
+
+<p>When at last he was out of sight, she went about her little duties, but
+came back again and again to the window, watching for the time when he
+should reappear.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony and the captain, half-way across the harbor, said things about
+Justin's recklessness, and spoke of the danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Some day he'll get hurt," was the captain's conclusion, "and then he
+won't ever fly again."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Anthony's eyes were following the "Gray Gull," which was now
+beyond the harbor and heading for the open sea; growing smaller and
+smaller, it was at last a mere speck on the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Then the captain and Anthony, having reached a place offshore which
+promised a good catch, put out their lines and entered at once upon that
+ecstatic state of watchfulness which is the heritage of the true
+fisherman.</p>
+
+<p>The relief which Anthony felt from the cares which had oppressed him was
+magical. He was sailor enough to love the swell of the waves and the
+rippling music of the water as it slipped under the anchored boat; he
+was fisherman enough to be thrilled by the chances of capture; he was
+artist enough to gloat over the beauty of the dull morning&mdash;the white
+gulls circling overhead, the black rocks sticking their spines above the
+gray sea, a phantom four-masted ship sailing straight toward them out of
+the mists.</p>
+
+<p>And he was man enough to think of the woman he loved, and to forget the
+pensive appealing child in the shadowy room. He had a vision of Diana
+up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> there in the forest&mdash;strong of spirit, wresting from life, even in
+her exile, the things which were worth while.</p>
+
+<p>As they ate their lunch the little captain confided to Anthony the hope
+of his heart. "I'm going to ask Letty Matthews to marry me&mdash;I want to
+get her away from that school&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good. I'll dance at your wedding."</p>
+
+<p>"When am I to dance at yours?" the captain demanded, bluntly. "I should
+think it was about time that you were putting your furniture in that big
+house for Diana Gregory."</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the furniture is in." Anthony slurred over the greater question
+by tactfully emphasizing the lesser. "I had my mother's piano sent over
+yesterday, and some of the things for the living-room and library. We
+haven't a place for them at Harbor Light&mdash;and then there's the china. I
+wish I could match up some of those pieces of White Canton, captain. I
+wonder if we could make an exchange. I've a lot of Crown Medallion which
+would fill out your set&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Having thus started the little captain on his chief hobby, Anthony
+breathed a sigh of relief, and went on with his fishing.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the china sufficed to fill the cap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>tain's mind until the
+fish stopped biting, and they decided to go in.</p>
+
+<p>It was just as they began their trip toward the harbor that Justin came
+back.</p>
+
+<p>The wind was blowing now straight from the south, and the "Gray Gull"
+was making slow headway against it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't he come down to the water? It's safer," said the little
+captain, anxiously. "There's every sign of a squall&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Justin kept on; between him and the harbor was the Neck, with its
+jagged shore line of rocks. He was evidently planning to cross the strip
+of land obliquely, as, in rounding the point to come up the harbor, he
+must get the full force of the wind&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>As he sailed over them they caught the strong beat of his motor. It
+seemed, too, that he waved his hand; then he left them behind, keeping
+close to shore and above that jagged line of rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the fool," the captain murmured. "Why don't he get away from the
+land?"</p>
+
+<p>The wind came with a mighty sweep; the air-ship gave a backward tilt,
+fluttered for a moment like a bird in a storm&mdash;then shot down with
+sickening swiftness!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"His motor has stopped," the captain shouted, "and he's lost control! If
+he strikes the rocks he's done for!"</p>
+
+<p>Down&mdash;down! They had one glimpse of Justin struggling to free himself;
+they saw him jump clear, and the big machine crashed on the beach.</p>
+
+<p>It was the little captain who forced his boat to record speed, but it
+was Anthony who went over the side and through the breakers to where
+Justin lay prostrate, half in and half out of the water.</p>
+
+<p>Wet and dripping the doctor bent over the boy, put his hand to his heart
+and felt it beating faintly, then looked at the broken body and said,
+unsteadily:</p>
+
+<p>"There's only a slim chance of saving him. We must get him to Harbor
+Light."</p>
+
+<p>The accident had been seen from the harbor, and as the captain's boat
+shot around the Point with its precious burden, it met other boats
+coming out to meet it, and orders were shouted back and forth, so that
+when the rescuers reached the pier, there was a car ready for that which
+had gone out full of life and strength and which had come back beaten
+and bruised.</p>
+
+<p>The girls on the porch of the big hotel cried in each other's arms,
+hysterically, as the car passed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> and talked of the way the young
+aviator had looked in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>But far up in a tall old house, crowned by a cupola, was a girl who did
+not cry. She had seen the "Gray Gull" come down and had guessed at the
+catastrophe. She had fainted away quietly, and lay now on the floor by
+the window with all of her fair hair shaken over her still white face.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>BROKEN WINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was Sophie who found Bettina. She came in quietly, wondering at the
+silence, then growing suddenly afraid she passed swiftly to the inner
+room to discover Miss Matthews still asleep and Bettina in a huddled
+heap on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>She picked the girl up in her strong arms, and carried her back to the
+big room and brought water and bathed her face, murmuring anxiously, "My
+dear, what is it? What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>And, after a little while, Bettina whispered, "Justin," and then, a
+little louder, "Justin," and coming to the surface through the darkness
+for a third time, she clutched Sophie's arm, and cried, "Oh, is he
+killed? Is Justin killed?"</p>
+
+<p>Holding the shuddering little creature close, Sophie protested: "My
+dear, what is it? What have you dreamed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't dream. Oh, Sophie, I didn't dream. I saw him up in the air,
+and I saw him&mdash;fall&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So it had come. So it came to all men who flew. Every bit of blood was
+drained from Sophie's face. But, fighting for composure, she held out
+such hope as she could. "My dear, are you sure? How did you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was standing by the window when he&mdash;came down&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But there may have been some one to help him&mdash;and he was over the
+water&mdash;and he can&mdash;swim&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Footsteps were ascending the stairs lightly but hurriedly. The two women
+turned their white faces to the door. Captain Stubbs stood on the
+threshold.</p>
+
+<p>"He's hurt," he said. "Justin's hurt. He's at Harbor Light&mdash;and he's
+asked for Betty&mdash;and Anthony says that she must come."</p>
+
+<p>In a big room that overlooked the sea lay the bird man with broken
+wings. After that first murmured plea for "Betty" he had showed no sign
+of returning consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>On the floor above him they were getting ready for the operation. Nurses
+and doctors, in ghostly white, had set themselves to various preparatory
+tasks. And presently everything was in readiness for the great Dr.
+Anthony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was delayed by a white-faced slip of a thing, whom he led at once
+into his private office, leaving Captain Stubbs outside as a proud and
+patient sentinel.</p>
+
+<p>When he had closed the door, Anthony took the little cold hands in his.
+"He is going to get well, Betty, if my skill can make him. I've got to
+operate at once&mdash;and there's a big chance&mdash;the other way&mdash;&mdash;" He
+hesitated, then said, gently, "You love him, child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;oh, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And he loves you&mdash;how blind I've been! How much trouble might have been
+saved if I had known."</p>
+
+<p>There was no bitterness in his voice, only a great regret.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," he went on, "I'm going to save him for you, if I can. And
+I've sent a nurse to take care of Letty Matthews so that you can have
+Sophie with you."</p>
+
+<p>He had thought of everything. It came to Bettina then what he meant to
+the world&mdash;this great Dr. Anthony&mdash;she had hated his mission of
+healing&mdash;and the skill which might now mean to her a lifetime of
+happiness instead of unutterable woe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She tried, faltering, to tell him something of what she was feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, dear child. You could not know. And now you must be very brave,
+and pray your little white prayers for Justin, and, please God, we shall
+bring him through."</p>
+
+<p>Then he had gone away and Sophie had come, and the dreadful time of
+waiting had begun.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie, who had walked in the Valley of the Shadow with her own beloved,
+knew the right things to say to the child who clung to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest, think of all you will mean to him when he gets well. Why,
+there's never an opportunity for a woman like that of having the man she
+loves dependent upon her&mdash;you can do all of the lovely little things for
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"But if he should not&mdash;get well?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are not to think of that."</p>
+
+<p>"I must think of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, dear, <i>don't</i>. You can't help him or yourself by crying&mdash;I know
+how you feel&mdash;but think of this. If you should lose him, you will still
+have known love at its best. And you will never be content with a lesser
+thing. Oh, Betty, child, it is the shallow people who ask, 'Is it better
+to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> loved and lost than never to have loved?' How <i>can</i> there be
+any doubt? The woman who has not loved is only a half creature."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. Oh, Sophie, it seems such an awful thing to say, but if this
+hadn't happened I should never have been sure that for me there could
+never be any one else but Justin."</p>
+
+<p>Tactfully, the older woman led her on to talk of her doubts and fears,
+and of her terror lest she might deal with love lightly, as her father
+had done. And then Sophie spoke reverently of her own perfect marriage.</p>
+
+<p>"It was during his illness," she said, "that I learned to know my
+husband. I think I had always been a bit selfish. He had seemed so
+strong that I had heaped my burdens upon him. He wanted me to be happy,
+so he withheld all cares from me. But the time came when he knew it was
+not right to withhold such cares. He knew that I was to face separation
+and loneliness, and so he helped me to get ready. Oh, Betty, dear, I
+can't tell you how wonderful he was. He knew that death must come to
+him, and yet he never whimpered. He was a brave soldier going down to
+battle, and not once did he flinch. But gradually he came to lean on me;
+once he cried in my arms&mdash;not from fear, but because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> he must leave me.
+These things are not easy to speak of&mdash;but where at first I had merely
+loved, I came to worship. I saw how he had shielded me, and when he left
+me I had the precious memory not only of his care for me&mdash;but of my care
+for him&mdash;and his appreciation of it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence in which not only the "white prayers" of Bettina
+ascended, but the fervent ones of the woman who had suffered and lost.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a nurse with the message, "Dr. Blake wishes me to say that all
+conditions are favorable," and they permitted themselves to hope.</p>
+
+<p>Other people were coming now to Harbor Light&mdash;great men from the yachts,
+people from the big hotels, fellow-aviators of Justin's&mdash;the townsfolk
+and sailors&mdash;children who had worshiped the flying man of the smiling
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>But no one was shown into the inner office except Bobbie and Doris and
+Sara.</p>
+
+<p>It was in that first moment of her meeting with Bettina that Sara
+blotted out the last vestige of smallness and of jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>She went straight up to the girl whom Justin loved, and put her arms
+about her. "Oh, you poor dear thing," and they wept together.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Bettina asked, "How did you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody knows," Sara said, hysterically. "Did you think you could
+hide it?"</p>
+
+<p>Doris was weeping, too, in Bobbie's arms, and Bobbie's white, set face
+showed what he was feeling for his friend. "Oh, what made him go out on
+such a day&mdash;of all the crazy things&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I told him not to," said Captain Stubbs, who had kept hitherto in the
+background, "but there's no fool like a young fool, and I said it at the
+time. But it was God's own providence that we were there when he fell.
+And if any one can fix him up it's Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina heard, and thought of her former fear of this place, which
+seemed now a sacred house of healing. Was she the same girl who had
+railed so bitterly against Anthony's profession? She felt that she
+wanted to tell him how great he was. Why, he was a wonderful man&mdash;and he
+was going to save Justin as he had saved others. Daily he fought battles
+with death and conquered. He must conquer now!</p>
+
+<p>Up-stairs in the operating room was being played a game of skill which
+had for its pawns human life and human reason.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The worst trouble lay in the wounds about the head. But there were other
+dreadful complications, and many times in the hours that followed it
+seemed that the game was lost.</p>
+
+<p>All through the tiresome ordeal not once did a muscle of the great
+surgeon quiver. Not once did he show dismay at that which was most
+baffling; not once did he show weakness at that which was most pitiful.</p>
+
+<p>But when at last his great task was ended, his face was worn and gray.</p>
+
+<p>Yet as he went to change his clothes, through the fabric of his
+weariness and of his anxiety ran a thread of joy in the thought that the
+barriers were down between himself and Diana, and that he might love her
+now without reproach.</p>
+
+<p>When at last he descended to his little office, he spoke hopefully. "His
+strength and youth are in his favor&mdash;and I'm going to pull him through."</p>
+
+<p>Yet he knew in his heart that he was flinging a defiance at destiny.</p>
+
+<p>He arranged to keep Bettina at Harbor Light.</p>
+
+<p>"Justin might ask for you again," was his explanation.</p>
+
+<p>So Bobbie and Doris and Sara and Sophie went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> away together, and when
+there was no one else to hear, Anthony said to Bettina, gently, "My
+dear, why didn't you tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>Curled up in a big leather chair, she spoke of her fear of hurting him,
+of being inconstant&mdash;like her father.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed such a child in her blue serge suit with its red silk tie,
+and with the shady hat which had been pinned on hastily when the summons
+came. But the things she was saying were womanly things, and for the
+first time since he had known her Anthony perceived the possibilities of
+which Diana had been so sure&mdash;this little Betty child, transformed by
+love, would one day be an inspiration and a help to the man she would
+marry.</p>
+
+<p>"If I have hurt you," she said, as she finished, "I&mdash;I can only ask you
+to forgive me. If this had not happened, I think I should have&mdash;kept my
+promise. But now you know&mdash;and you will not want me to keep it."</p>
+
+<p>"No. I do not want you to keep it. Oh, what a tragedy we have made of it
+all. I might have made it so easy for you."</p>
+
+<p>"You, Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>He sat silent for a moment, his fingers tapping the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> arm of his chair,
+those strong flexible fingers which an hour ago had done such magical
+feats of surgery. Bettina's eyes were held by them.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know how to begin; it has to do with&mdash;Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"I love her, dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Diana?" Bettina spoke, breathlessly. "Oh, and does she love
+you&mdash;Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have always loved her&mdash;but I thought I had lost her&mdash;then when she
+came back from Europe I found that she was still free&mdash;and that&mdash;she
+cared. But by that time I had engaged myself to a dear child who really
+didn't love me at all."</p>
+
+<p>"But why didn't you tell me, Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, my dear, I thought you might be made unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>To others there might have seemed something humorous in the
+situation&mdash;in its almost farcical complications and misunderstandings.
+But these two saw none; the issues were too deep, too serious; death was
+too near in that upper room.</p>
+
+<p>"Was that why&mdash;she went away&mdash;&mdash;?" Bettina whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, write and tell her to come back."</p>
+
+<p>"I have written. I wrote yesterday. I saw that you were not happy. I
+felt that I had no right to permit you to marry me when my heart was
+bound up in another woman&mdash;as it was bound up in her. I felt that in
+marriage there is something which goes beyond conventional honor. As a
+physician I have seen much of unhappiness&mdash;and I could not sanction in
+myself that which I would not have sanctioned in another. So I told
+Diana. I think instinct warned me there was some one else, after your
+flight with Justin."</p>
+
+<p>"And now&mdash;if he gets&mdash;well."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony stood up. "He shall get well," he said, steadily. "I scarcely
+dare think of the things which are coming to you and to me, dear child.
+But when I think of them my heart says, 'Thank God.'"</p>
+
+<p>If she wept now in his arms, it was as a daughter might weep in the arms
+of a father&mdash;there was love between them at last, but it was the love of
+tried friendship, of passionate gratitude on her part, of protective
+affection on his.</p>
+
+<p>When he had quite soothed her, she drew off the sparkling rings. "These
+must go back to you," she said; "some day you must give them to Diana."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He shook his head. "I shall give her pearls. She belongs to the sea,
+Bettina; she's the wife for a man of sailor instincts like myself&mdash;we
+love the harbor, and the great lights that are high above it, and the
+little lights that are low&mdash;and so I shall give her pearls.</p>
+
+<p>"But you must keep these," he went on; "not to wear on your third
+finger&mdash;Justin, please God, shall some day look after that&mdash;but to wear
+on your right hand, as my gift to you&mdash;for luck and a long and happy
+life."</p>
+
+<p>In the evening they rode over to see Miss Matthews, and found her
+sitting up. "I feel better," she said, "and there's something in the
+air. I want to know why I have a nurse, and why Bettina went away while
+I was asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"And I want to know," said Anthony, sternly, "why you are out of bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am better," said Letty Matthews, "there's nothing in this
+world that can cure a person like curiosity&mdash;and I had to know what was
+going on."</p>
+
+<p>So Anthony told her, and she wept to think of the fate of the bird man
+with the broken wings.</p>
+
+<p>But she was cheered by the coming of Captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> Stubbs. He bore on a tray
+such a supply of delicious viands that Miss Matthews urged that Bettina
+and Anthony should stay and have supper.</p>
+
+<p>Bettina could not eat.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, I'm not hungry," she said, and went down the winding stairway,
+and when she came back her arms were full of roses.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you let him have them in his room?" she asked Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"He shall see them first when he opens his eyes," Anthony promised;
+"they shall carry all of your messages to him."</p>
+
+<p>In the hushed room at Harbor Light there was darkness&mdash;and there was the
+fragrance of many flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the darkness a faint voice wavered, "Lilacs?"</p>
+
+<p>The nurse bent over the high hospital bed. "Roses&mdash;lovely ones."</p>
+
+<p>A long silence. Then, "Lovely ladies?" said the faint voice.</p>
+
+<p>He could see them with his eyes shut&mdash;a whole procession of pretty
+ladies, all floating in the dimness. Just their faces on a broad band of
+light, over which the gray mists rolled now and then and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> blurred the
+outlines. Then the faces would again shine out, smiling&mdash;gay and sad,
+pensive and glad.</p>
+
+<p>"Lovely ladies," he said again.</p>
+
+<p>They followed him into his dreams, and kept him company until the pain
+began&mdash;that racking, wrenching pain; then they flew from him and left
+him alone to suffer.</p>
+
+<p>After a long time, when the nurse had bared his shoulder and had pricked
+it with something that felt like a pin, they came back&mdash;all those lovely
+faces; only now they seemed to peep from behind clouds of smoke, heavier
+than the mists, and more tantalizing in their concealments.</p>
+
+<p>So they came and went through the long night, leaving when the pain
+racked him, returning always when the nurse did things to his shoulder
+with her little shining instrument.</p>
+
+<p>They fled from him, too, when he opened his eyes and saw hazily that
+there was a light, and a great many flowers, and that Anthony was
+standing in a sort of bower of them.</p>
+
+<p>And Anthony was saying to some unseen person who stood at the head of
+the bed, "Did he notice the flowers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Good&mdash;you can take them out now&mdash;nurse."</p>
+
+<p>He had tried to tell Anthony about the pretty ladies. But they had come
+back and were whirling about him on that band of light&mdash;and there was
+one with dark hair with a crescent moon above the parting&mdash;and there was
+one who came closer than the others, and who had hair that shone like
+gold, and a little white face.</p>
+
+<p>"Betty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The nurse did not catch the name&mdash;but Anthony's quick ear was at once
+attentive.</p>
+
+<p>"She loves you, dear boy; and I'm going to make you well, so you may
+marry her."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ENCHANTED FOREST</h3>
+
+
+<p>Far up in the hills the Beautiful Lady went daily to the post-office for
+her mail.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long walk, and the path skirted the edge of the forest. Leaving
+the path one entered upon a world of dim green light, a world of soft
+whispering sounds, a world of enchantment; and it was into this world
+that Diana's feet strayed as she came and went. It was here she spent
+most of her mornings; it was here she found the solitude she craved.</p>
+
+<p>The guests at the mountain house called the Beautiful Lady exclusive;
+but it was an exclusiveness which matched her air of remoteness, and
+since such friendships as she encouraged were with those who were lonely
+and tired and sick, she made no enemies by her withdrawal from the
+conventional life of the place.</p>
+
+<p>The lazy folk on the porch who were content to wait for the mail bag
+which came at noon by carrier always watched with curiosity the
+departure and re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>turn of the stately woman who was said to be wealthy
+and of great social eminence. She went alone and came back just in time
+for lunch, having loitered on the way to read her letters.</p>
+
+<p>The letters, however, were not always satisfying. They brought such
+meager news of that which lay so near her heart! Sophie kept
+persistently away from topics which might be disturbing; Bettina's
+girlish epistles really told nothing&mdash;and Anthony wrote not at all.</p>
+
+<p>Yet such scraps as she could glean formed the excitement of Diana's day,
+and always she had a vague and formless hope&mdash;a hope for which she
+reproached herself. Always she hoped for a letter from Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>She knew that he ought not to write. She knew that if he did write she
+would not answer&mdash;but the longing of her heart would not be stilled.</p>
+
+<p>As far as possible she forced her mind to thoughts of the future, and it
+was thus she had evolved the plan which she had written to Sophie. It
+was the only way in which her life could be linked with Anthony's; they
+would thus share in a work which might continue in interest to the end
+of their days.</p>
+
+<p>There were times, however, when all of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> optimism, all of her
+philosophy failed, and when her whole nature cried out for reality&mdash;not
+for dreams.</p>
+
+<p>It was on one of these days of depression that she left behind her the
+hotel piazza with its chattering crowd, and drifted somewhat languidly
+across the lawn, past the tennis courts, and out into the mountain path.</p>
+
+<p>In her modish frock of gray linen, with a parasol of leaf green, she
+seemed to merge gradually into the grayness and greenness of the forest
+beyond. She might have been a dryad returning to her tree, or as an
+artist in the group on the porch remarked, "a nymph in a Corot setting."</p>
+
+<p>How still it was in the forest! Even the birds seemed to respect the
+silences, and slipped from branch to branch like shadows. The squirrels,
+flattened heads downward against gray tree trunks, whisked up and out of
+sight as the intruder advanced. A strayed butterfly went by in a
+wavering flight, seeking the sunshine and the flowers of the open
+fields.</p>
+
+<p>Diana loved the forest, but more than all she loved the sea. She missed
+the wild music of the waves and wind. The hills seemed to shut her in;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
+she wanted the wide spaces, the limitless expanse of blue&mdash;she wanted
+the harbor with its many lights.</p>
+
+<p>Yet if Anthony married Betty it would be years before she would dare go
+back. His work was there, and he must stay; she would be exiled from the
+place she loved.</p>
+
+<p>Her steps quickened as if she would fly from the thought. She passed
+again beyond the edge of the arching trees, and came upon a winding
+road. Its last curve brought her to a little settlement of which the
+store, which was also the post-office, was the most imposing building.</p>
+
+<p>The postmistress knew her and had the package ready. "Lots of letters,
+two papers and a half dozen magazines," she said, cheerily. "I don't see
+how you find time to read so many."</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to do but read. I am not a lucky busy person like
+yourself." Diana was smiling as she turned up the corners of each letter
+to glance at the one beneath.</p>
+
+<p>On top was Sophie's daily budget, black-edged and bulky. Bettina's
+showed a faddish slender monogram. Following was Justin's&mdash;she knew that
+boyish scrawl; a business letter or two, a bill, an advertisement, and
+then&mdash;her heart leaped. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> flap of a great square envelope blazed
+the seal which Anthony had chosen for his house of healing&mdash;a lighthouse
+flashing its beacon over stormy waters.</p>
+
+<p>The little postmistress wondered at the radiance which illumined the
+face of the lovely lady. Diana, in saying a hurried farewell, sparkled
+like a girl.</p>
+
+<p>"You've given me such wonderful letters this morning," she said,
+breathlessly. "I must run away and read them."</p>
+
+<p>And she did run, literally, when she had passed beyond the limits of the
+village. Holding up her narrow skirt, her parasol under her arm, her
+precious burden of mail hugged tightly, she left the path, and again
+entered upon the enchanted forest.</p>
+
+<p>She knew of a place where she would read Anthony's letter, a warm little
+hollow, with a still silver pool beyond, a pool which, with its
+upstanding reeds and rushes, was merged at its farthest edge into a
+blurred purple background.</p>
+
+<p>Safe at last in her retreat she opened Anthony's letter, forgetting the
+others in her eagerness, seeing only the firm, simple script which
+crowded a dozen pages.</p>
+
+<p>He began quietly, but evidently, as he wrote, Anthony had been swayed by
+emotions which had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> mastered him, and he had written with fire and
+intensity, and, as she read, her heart responded tremulously:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><br />
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Dear Diana</span>:<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Sophie has told me of your plan&mdash;your wonderful plan which has to do
+with my work and with me, and which shall link our futures in an
+interest which shall be above reproach.</p>
+
+<p>"It was like you to think of it, and I shall not try to thank you.
+Indeed you will not want my thanks. You and I are beyond conventional
+concealments, and you know, as I know, that the thing which you are
+doing is for your own happiness as well as for mine, and I am glad
+that it is so, because your happiness is the thing which I most
+desire.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not wanted to think of you up there in the hills. You belong
+to the sea, dear girl, and I know you are missing it, as we are
+missing you. I know, too, that, as you read this, you will say: 'He is
+overstepping bounds. He must not write these things to me.' But I am
+going to write them, Diana, for the time has come when we must face
+the big truths, and let the half-truths go.</p>
+
+<p>"The big truth is this&mdash;that you and I love each other. The half-truth
+is&mdash;that Bettina loves me, and that I must not break her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I am troubled about Bettina. Certainly the child is not happy. All of
+her brightness has left her. She is pale and thin, and I am too wise a
+physician of bodies not to know something, too, of hearts. You may say
+that my attitude has affected her; that she had felt instinctively the
+difference in me. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> it is not that. I am sure it is not that. When
+I asked her to-night if there was anything between us, she faltered
+that she had something to tell me that she would write.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I should wait until her letter comes, but I cannot wait. You
+are so vividly with me at this moment, Diana, that I can almost hear
+your voice calling above the noise of the wind and waves. I can see
+you as I like you best&mdash;all in white. I can feel your presence as I
+felt it that night in the empty house as you stood on the threshold of
+that moonlighted room.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear girl, come back to me. I must have you in my life. Otherwise
+it will be a thwarted life&mdash;and a lonely one. For whether you marry me
+or not, I will not marry Betty. I do not love her, and she shall not
+spend her days as the unloved wife of one whose thoughts are all with
+a wonder-woman up in the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you see it as I do? We must not so profane marriage, Betty and
+I. There is no idea of honor so false as that which holds a man or a
+woman to a promise which has ceased to have a vital and a vivid
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"No man has a right to plan for a home unless Love is to be the
+corner-stone. These things are sacred, and not to be spoken of except
+to those who understand. But my love for you and your love for me
+would form a barrier against all the sweet and tender meanings for
+Betty of wifehood and motherhood.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the plain truth of it. I'm a blunt man, and I've said it as it
+has come to me after days of pondering.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am not saying these things that I may marry you. I am saying them
+because they are true. Surely we can find a way to make Bettina happy.
+Her youth and loveliness must always win love. The hearts of the boys
+at the club are all under her little feet, and Justin&mdash;oh, if I only
+dared hope that she could care for Justin&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But marry her I will not, even if I go alone through life.</p>
+
+<p>"For me you are the One Woman, Diana. In these days of separation from
+you I have thought of many things, but of none more than this: that we
+men, having loved one woman, deceive ourselves, when we lose her, with
+the thought that another like her may be found&mdash;but she is never
+found, and so we go through life half-men, unsatisfied, with hungry
+hearts.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a big storm coming. I wish you might go down to the beach and
+walk with me in the wind. How often we have walked together in beating
+storms, Diana, and have gloried in them&mdash;so we would face the storms
+of life together; so I cannot face them with any other&mdash;or alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, girl, come back to me. I need you. I must have you. I <i>will</i> have
+you. You are mine.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Anthony.</span><br /><br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The letter dropped from her fingers. She hid her face in her hands. His
+call echoed thunderingly in her ears. But she must not listen; she must
+not.</p>
+
+<p>She yielded for the moment, however, to the sweetness of his insistent
+demand. Curled up in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> the warm little hollow she dreamed of the things
+which might be&mdash;putting off, as long as possible, the moment of
+decision.</p>
+
+<p>The other letters lay unheeded at her feet. All friendship seemed futile
+at such a time. What could Sophie, or Bettina or Justin say which could
+match those burning words of her lover?</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="THE OTHER LETTERS LAY UNHEEDED" title="THE OTHER LETTERS LAY UNHEEDED" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The sun, rising higher, filtered through the branches and fell like
+golden rain upon the surface of the pool&mdash;the purple shadows gave way to
+emerald vistas; a trail of honey-bees traveled unerringly toward a
+hidden honey store. It was high noon in the forest!</p>
+
+<p>Diana, waking to the fact that the hours had flown, gathered up her
+other letters, and opened the one on top of the pile. It was Justin's.
+What could he have to say to her, this boy who lived his life so
+lightly?</p>
+
+<p>But when she had read the scrawled words she sat staring at them, hardly
+believing the things which had been written.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><br />
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Dear Lady</span>:<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Betty Dolce told me last night of her engagement to Anthony. But it
+was too late. You see it has come to this: that there isn't any one
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> the world for me but Betty&mdash;she's so little and young and sweet,
+and she has waked up the man in me, and that's what no other girl has
+ever done.</p>
+
+<p>"But she won't break her promise, and last night I left her crying,
+and I can't stand the thought of it. I just can't stand it. When it
+was only I who suffered, I could get along, but now&mdash;why, it's Betty's
+happiness against all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I doing a dishonorable thing, Diana, when I ask her to tell
+Anthony the truth?</p>
+
+<p>"You shall decide for us. I cannot think clearly; I love her too much.</p>
+
+
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Justin.</span><br /><br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>What had inspired Justin to write to her like that? Did Betty know? Did
+Sophie? She went to the reading of the other letters eagerly, and when
+at last they lay before her, and the whole pitiful little story was
+revealed, the tears were running down her cheeks. Oh, the unhappiness of
+the dear young hearts&mdash;and the happiness which was to come!</p>
+
+<p>Those who had assembled on the porch of the hotel in the before-luncheon
+hour were struck by something unusual in the bearing of the Beautiful
+Lady as she came toward them. All the listlessness of the morning had
+gone. Her head was up and she walked swiftly, lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"She makes me think of the 'Winged Vic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>tory,'" was the comment of the
+observant artist. "She gives the same impression of triumphant motion."</p>
+
+<p>At other times Diana had rather resented the inspection of the people on
+the porch. But to-day all of the faces looked friendly&mdash;she felt that
+she would like to say to them all, "I am going home to be happy." But
+what she really did was to bow somewhat shyly, and to go on with flaming
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>The artist looked after her. "I wonder if she knows that she belongs to
+the goddess type of the Golden Age," he said, and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at dusk that Diana stepped once more within the borders of
+the enchanted forest, and sought the warm little hollow beside the pool.
+In her filmy gown of midnight blue she moved like a shadow among deeper
+shadows&mdash;her neck and shoulders gleaming white.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>About her were all the eerie noises of the dark, the little, little
+sounds of little, little things.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," Diana whispered, "good-bye&mdash;dear forest."</p>
+
+<p>The sounds seemed to swell triumphantly into a love song&mdash;the weird and
+wonderful song of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> night. From bush and branch call answered call,
+mate invited mate; all the wild things of the wood were voicing their
+need, each of the other.</p>
+
+<p>So the Beautiful Lady left behind her the sheltered hollow in the wood,
+and turned her face toward the sea with its beating storms, and she
+turned with gladness.</p>
+
+<p>It was late the next afternoon when she came at last to her home on the
+harbor.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie, warned by a telegram, was waiting for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dearest dear," she said, as they embraced each other in the garden,
+"you beauty! Why, Diana, you don't look a day over twenty."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so happy, Sophie. Happy women are always young. Oh, I've so much to
+tell you. Your letter came with all the other letters. How silly we have
+been! That's the way with half the troubles in life. How easy it would
+be to be happy if only we could look into the minds of other people."</p>
+
+<p>Peter Pan, hearing Diana's voice, came to them, tumultuously, leaping
+above the nasturtium borders and the brilliant flower beds.</p>
+
+<p>Diana picked him up. "Think of it, Peter," she said, in her thrilling
+voice; "you're going to live up the road with me for all the rest of
+your life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>&mdash;in Anthony's house, and I am going to live there, too."</p>
+
+<p>Sophie gasped. "Oh, has it come to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It has come to everything that means happiness," Diana answered. "Let's
+go up-stairs, Sophie, where we can talk."</p>
+
+<p>As they entered the house Delia came to meet them. Her face lacked its
+usual beaming welcome. "Oh, my dear," she said, "I'm glad to see you so
+much better, but it is a sad errand which has brought you."</p>
+
+<p>"Sad&mdash;what do you mean, Delia?"</p>
+
+<p>The two women exchanged glances, and Sophie faltered, "Didn't you get my
+telegram, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"Telegram&mdash;no, I've heard nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"It's Justin. He's dreadfully hurt. His air-ship fell, and Anthony has
+him at Harbor Light."</p>
+
+<p>She sketched the details. "Betty is there. Anthony won't let any one see
+him. But he thinks Betty should be within call."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sophie, is it as bad as that&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is about as bad as it can be, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>When they had talked it over, it was decided that Diana should call up
+Anthony and ask to see Betty at Harbor Light; when she had given the
+tele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>phone number she found herself shivering with expectation. In a
+moment she would hear his voice!</p>
+
+<p>She was told, however, that Dr. Blake was out on an important case; that
+he would not be back until late.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I'd better wait until he returns before I make any plans,"
+Diana told Sophie, and then Sara came in&mdash;a subdued Sara, with much of
+her sharpness modified, and they had dinner together, and were served by
+the adoring Delia.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner Diana grew restless, and, wandering alone in the garden,
+found her feet straying in the direction of Anthony's house on the
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Peter Pan followed her, and waited for her when she went in, having
+learned caution from his last imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>Diana knew where the key was kept, and felt for it behind a cornice. She
+let herself in and shut the door behind her. The lights from the street
+lamps showed that some pieces of furniture had been placed since her
+last visit. There were rugs beneath her feet. On the table in the hall
+was the end of a candle in a quaint silver holder, and a cup contained
+matches.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She lighted the candle, and made a tour of the lower floor. In the
+living-room she set two big chairs side by side on the hearth and
+laughed a little, fancying her head and Anthony's close together. In the
+dining-room were treasures of china&mdash;the White Canton in unchipped
+dozens. She set two places on the polished table, and drank Anthony's
+health in a mystical cup of tea.</p>
+
+<p>She ascended the stairs. There were massive beds and massive highboys
+and lowboys and tables and chairs everywhere, but in the room to which
+she had brought the lilacs there was nothing but a little old-fashioned
+piano, and the gray pottery bowl which had held her flowers. Evidently
+Anthony had changed his plans, and this place which he had dedicated to
+her was to be used simply as a sitting-room or music room for Bettina.</p>
+
+<p>The candle flared and went out. Diana sat down on the old-fashioned
+round stool in front of the little piano. Anthony's mother had played on
+that little piano. It had been his father's gift to his bride.</p>
+
+<p>With her hands resting on the keys she sat and looked out over her
+beloved harbor.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little silver moon&mdash;Diana's moon, the crescent of the
+huntress.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p><p>Well, it was Diana's night! Her fingers struck softly the chords of the
+music she had created.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/music_score.png" width="600" height="248" alt="Music_score" title="Music_score" />
+</div>
+
+<p>On the other side of the street, a tired man, coming out of a house
+where a sick woman had needed his services, halted and held up his head.</p>
+
+<p>He crossed the road and entered the house.</p>
+
+<p>The rugs deadened the sound of his steps. He stopped on the threshold of
+that upper room. He could see the faint outlines of the tall white
+figure; he knew the voice, the song.</p>
+
+<p>"Diana, my dear girl!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned and stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony&mdash;oh, Anthony, I have come back&mdash;to you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PROCESSION OF PRETTY LADIES</h3>
+
+
+<p>For days the procession of pretty ladies kept Justin company. Then they
+floated away on the rolling mists, and he found real faces bending over
+him,&mdash;the nurse's with its fresh comeliness, and Anthony's with a light
+on it which transfigured it.</p>
+
+<p>One morning when he waked a white rose lay on his pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you put it there, nurse?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Miss Dolce came."</p>
+
+<p>On Anthony's next visit Justin asked: "Why didn't you let me see her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She sees you every day. Just a peep in at your door. But always when
+you are asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not when I am awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would tire you too much, dear boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Only let me look at her."</p>
+
+<p>So at last Bettina stood beside him, very pale, but with her eyes
+shining.</p>
+
+<p>Justin could not lift his hurt hands to touch her, so she bent down and
+laid her cheek against his, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> whispered, "When you are well, we are
+going to be&mdash;married."</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;sweetheart."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;may I have the little silver ring for my wedding ring, Justin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sweetheart."</p>
+
+<p>She was not white now, but all rosy with blushes. As she again bent over
+him he felt the thrilling power of her youth and beauty. Her presence
+was like wine, reviving him. Her words were a loving cup held to his
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my Betty, help me to live," he whispered, weakly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush; oh, my poor, poor boy."</p>
+
+<p>In the weeks that followed it seemed as if only love were holding Justin
+back from death. There were days when Bettina was not allowed to see
+him; there were other days when Anthony dared not tell her the fears
+which assailed him, when he avoided all of her questions, confiding only
+in Diana.</p>
+
+<p>"There's an awful chance that he will never walk."</p>
+
+<p>Diana, very pale, asked, "Is it his spine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And he was so strong and beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"He will never fly again, Diana."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, poor Justin!"</p>
+
+<p>"And poor Betty. I wonder if, when all the first glamour is gone, she
+will be able to stand the test."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure she will. She has been so brave."</p>
+
+<p>"If I know Justin, he won't let her marry him when he learns the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Anthony!"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't given up hope, however. His wonderful vitality and perfect
+health may bring about that which now seems impossible."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina, since she could not minister to Justin, spent the days in
+ministering to others. In the great workshop where men and women of
+wealth wove rugs and made pottery as if their bread and butter depended
+upon it, she became a familiar figure. The patients loved to have her
+there, and she went from one to the other, a charming little helper in
+her white frock, with her air of girlish grace.</p>
+
+<p>In those days her beauty assumed a new aspect. All the petulance was
+gone from her expression&mdash;the restlessness from her manner.</p>
+
+<p>"How lovely she is!" said nurses and patients and doctors, and they
+spoke not of her physical beauty, but of her loveliness of mind and of
+soul.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever she was allowed to see Justin she came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> to him with hope in her
+shining glance. And one day Anthony let her take the nurse's place, so
+that for the first time they were alone.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that Justin told her of the Procession of Pretty Ladies.
+"Anthony says it was the morphine," he said, "but whatever it was, they
+kept me company for days."</p>
+
+<p>Betty laughed. "You'll soon have a real procession of pretty ladies.
+Diana wants to come, and Sophie and Sara and Doris. But Anthony insists
+that they must wait until you can sit up."</p>
+
+<p>"When will that be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Soon."</p>
+
+<p>"How soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask so many questions. As soon as it is good for you, you
+impatient boy."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>am</i> impatient. I want to be up and out. I want to fly again over the
+harbor. Betty, all the lovely days are going, and I am lying here like a
+log."</p>
+
+<p>Her heart seemed to stand still. She knew that he would never fly again.
+Anthony had told her that he might prepare her in part for the truth.
+But Justin must not know.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke hurriedly. "I should hate to have you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> fly again&mdash;I should
+always be thinking of the time I saw you fall."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the only thing I can do well, Betty."</p>
+
+<p>"There are so many things that you can do&mdash;with me."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. "What could I do&mdash;with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You could build a little workroom in the top of our house&mdash;<i>our</i> house,
+dear boy; and you could sit there and invent wonderful things to make
+other men safe who go up in the air, and I could watch you do it."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should I be shut up, dearest? I'm not made for that sort of
+thing. I'd rather be out&mdash;in the open."</p>
+
+<p>There was a note of alarm in his voice. Bettina tried to laugh
+naturally. "Because I'd rather have you with me, you venturesome
+youth&mdash;then I should know you were safe."</p>
+
+<p>"If anything could hold me down it would be you,&mdash;Betty."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for a moment, then she said, with hesitation, "Justin,
+dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to wait until you are well&mdash;to be married&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he turned on her his puzzled glance the color flooded her face.
+"Perhaps it isn't usual for a woman to say&mdash;such a thing. Perhaps I
+shouldn't say it. But&mdash;I want to feel that I belong to you&mdash;I want to
+know that I have the right to be always at your side. I want to know
+that&mdash;where you go&mdash;I can go&mdash;Justin&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The bandages were still on his hands and arms, those hands which yearned
+to take her hands, those arms which ached to enfold her.</p>
+
+<p>But his eyes held a look which was a caress. "But it would not be fair
+to you, sweetheart,&mdash;to spend your honeymoon in nursing me."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be fair to me. Oh, Justin, Justin, it isn't just sweetheart
+love that I am giving you; it is wife love and mother love&mdash;I feel
+sometimes as if you were my hurt little boy, and that I'd give my life
+to help you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was not crying, but her voice held an emotion which was deeper than
+tears; her steadfast eyes met his; her little hands were laid lightly on
+the covers above his heart.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly he saw her enthroned&mdash;a woman, not a child&mdash;a wife, not a
+playmate. Her youth and beauty were still there to charm him, but back
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> them was a quality which would hold him until the end&mdash;a divine
+quality of tenderness, of compassion, of eternal constancy.</p>
+
+<p>And, in response, he brought the best that manhood can bring to
+woman&mdash;reverence and that high regard which makes of marriage a
+spiritual bond.</p>
+
+<p>He tried to speak, but his voice failed. Then, as she bent above him,
+she heard his whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Kiss me&mdash;my wife!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the days which followed the pretty ladies came in a charming
+procession&mdash;Diana and Sophie, little Sara, bravely wistful, Doris
+escorted by Bobbie. And last, but not least in importance, came Letty
+Matthews, in a new white dress and rose-wreathed hat, and with happiness
+glorifying her plain features.</p>
+
+<p>But though they came and went, all these good friends of his, and he
+smiled and greeted them, his eyes went always beyond them to the little
+white and gold creature with the woman-eyes. And his voice would call
+for her, and until she came he would not be content.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AFTERGLOW</h3>
+
+
+<p>Anthony vetoed absolutely the idea of a marriage before Justin's fate
+should be finally decided.</p>
+
+<p>"But if he knows," Bettina urged with trembling lips, "if he knows that
+he may be&mdash;crippled&mdash;he will say that I shall not marry him. You know
+that he would say that, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>"And he would be right. A chronic invalid should not marry, Betty. I
+have great hope of his recovery. You and he must live on that hope a
+little longer."</p>
+
+<p>Bettina begged Diana to intercede, and that lovely lady, having claimed
+Anthony for a twilight walk on the beach, began her plea.</p>
+
+<p>But after the first words she found that she must deal not with the man
+who loved her, but with the great Dr. Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall certainly not allow it. I am not, of course, her legal
+guardian, and so I cannot prevent it in that way. But I can tell
+Justin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But she will not be happy without him, Anthony. If it were you, I
+should marry you."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not let you."</p>
+
+<p>"You could not help it."</p>
+
+<p>They faced each other&mdash;this strong man and this strong woman. With their
+wills opposed, each seemed immovable. It was evident that only a great
+depth of affection could bring harmony between their dominant natures.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony, smiling at the earnestness of his beloved, did not yield an
+inch. "These things are not to be decided by sentiment, dear. There are
+meanings in marriage far beyond mere romance, far beyond the fate of the
+two individuals who make the contract. We doctors must uphold the ideal
+of physical perfection lest the race suffer. Moreover Bettina does not
+know, she cannot know, what life would mean under such conditions. She
+does not know her own strength, her own weakness. She must learn
+something of life before she takes its heaviest burdens upon her. If in
+the years to come she can sustain Justin by her friendship, let it be
+that. She must not marry him."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;with your friendships, Anthony! Love cannot go back to
+friendship."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She had seated herself on a stone bench which backed by a clump of
+pines, commanded a wide view of the sea. He hesitated, wondering how he
+might chase away the shadow which lay on her lovely face.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear heart, we must not disagree about a thing which may right itself.
+Tell Betty that, if she will be patient for a few weeks, I shall hope to
+withdraw my opposition."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes did not meet his.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you thinking that I am cruel, Diana?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, no. But your wisdom won't cure Betty's heartache."</p>
+
+<p>"It may save her future heartaches."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if a woman's point of view is ever a man's point of view,
+Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only when two people love each other very much, dear. Then each tries
+to look at life through the other's eyes. We men would grow brutal
+without you to curb us. But, on the other hand, you need, now and then,
+the masculine common-sense view-point."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want the common-sense point of view in this, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>He laid his hands on her shoulders and stood looking down at her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite like&mdash;being curbed, Anthony."</p>
+
+<p>She was laughing a little for, in spite of her rebellion, there was
+something stimulating in the thought of his masterfulness. "You see,
+I've always ruled," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall still rule, everywhere, except in one little corner of my
+kingdom which has to do with things medical&mdash;over that I must still
+reign."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course if you think that you are right in this&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that I am right. Look at me, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>Thrilled by his tone of command, she did look at him with eyes like
+stars.</p>
+
+<p>Then, knowing that he had conquered, he drew her up to him and said,
+gently, "We doctors have to seem cruel to be kind&mdash;but you must never
+believe me cruel, Diana."</p>
+
+<p>So July passed and August, and the little town took on all the beauty of
+its September coloring. The dahlias blazed from every fence corner.
+Against the gray rocks their masses of brilliance tempted the brushes of
+the artists who came to paint.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The yachts began to leave the harbor, some of them going South, some of
+them making their exit to the clanking chorus of the marine railway. The
+yacht clubs sounded their last guns, packed away their pennants and
+hauled up their floating docks. The hotels were closed, and most of the
+mansions on the Neck were deserted. The summer folk were turning toward
+the city, and the little seaport town was settling down to its winter
+routine.</p>
+
+<p>It was on one of those quiet September days that Anthony said to
+Bettina, "Set your wedding day, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Anthony, may I, really?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The specialists who came yesterday gave a final decision. Justin
+is going to get&mdash;well."</p>
+
+<p>The invalid, propped up in a big chair, was approached thus:</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind if it were a big affair, Justin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if you want it that way, sweetheart"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't, if you don't. But Diana and the rest are planning&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed. "I want the whole world to see you, and I want all the bells
+to ring, and I want to run away afterward with you, and to have our
+honeymoon last forever."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So they were married from Diana's, at high noon, and as the bride
+descended the stairway, a sigh of admiration went up from the waiting
+guests. Her costume had been copied from an old painting, and emphasized
+her likeness to those medieval Venetian beauties whose blood ran in her
+veins. Her veil was caught back, cap-fashion, from her face, then fell
+to her feet. The silken thinness of her gown was weighted with silver
+embroideries.</p>
+
+<p>Slightly to the left of the officiating clergyman was a screen of white
+roses. As Bettina advanced, the screen was set aside, and showed Justin,
+in a big chair, pale and smiling, and seeing only his bride as she came
+toward him.</p>
+
+<p>Standing by her lover's side, Bettina gave the responses clearly. And
+when he placed on her finger the little silver ring, it was she who bent
+and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the ceremony was over, the bridegroom was whisked away, to be
+followed by the bride when she had cut the wedding cake.</p>
+
+<p>In the library at the head of the stairs she found him. He was on his
+feet, unsupported, and looking expectantly toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little cry. "Justin, you must not&mdash;&mdash;!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He laughed and held out his arms to her. "Anthony said I might. Just to
+show you. He didn't quite dare for the wedding. But I want you to know
+that you are not marrying&mdash;a broken reed&mdash;dearest."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at him. "How good it seemed," she whispered, "to see your
+face above mine. I&mdash;I am just as high as your heart&mdash;Justin."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Snow over the harbor. Snow, too, at Harbor Light.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony's patients, warmly housed, were busy with Christmas work. Women
+who had always bought perfunctory Christmas presents, and to whom the
+holiday season had meant merely a weary round of shopping, bent eagerly
+over the bit of pottery or of weaving which was to carry a message of
+peace and good will. Men, whose gift-giving had lost all of its precious
+meanings, were carving quaint weather-vanes and toys with infinite
+pains, and reveling in their skill.</p>
+
+<p>Diana, moving from one to the other, encouraged and suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad we worked out that mistletoe design for the pottery and
+the holly for the little white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> rugs," she said; "it makes the work so
+much more interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"It is you who makes the work interesting," said her adoring husband who
+was at her elbow. "Don't you ever wish for anything else? Wouldn't you
+like to be down South with Justin and Betty&mdash;with purple seas and
+cocoanut palms and tennis and golf and good times?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather be here with you. Every time you come back from an important
+case or operation I feel as if you were a knight returning from
+battle&mdash;no woman can have that feeling when her husband isn't doing
+vital things&mdash;but I'll wait until I get home, Anthony, to tell you the
+rest of it&mdash;the whole of Harbor Light has its eyes on us."</p>
+
+<p>It was not curiosity which drew the eyes toward them. To these weary
+creatures, many of whom had lost their illusions, the romance of their
+beloved doctor had given new hope. Their belief in the happiness of
+another made their own chances of happiness seem less remote.</p>
+
+<p>It was late that night, however, before Diana could tell Anthony "the
+rest of it." He was delayed by a call to an outside case, and she sat up
+to wait for him.</p>
+
+<p>The snow had stopped, and as she stood at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> window in her room
+looking out, Minot's flashed above the horizon, and the big light on the
+Point flamed against the darkness like a sun. The little twinkling fair
+weather lights of the summer were gone. Only these remained through the
+beating storms to send out their warnings to the ships.</p>
+
+<p>It was the great lights of the harbor which served humanity; it was
+great men like Anthony who served!</p>
+
+<p>Smiling a little, in the fulness of her content, she turned back into
+the fire-lighted room, and went to her piano.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony, coming up the stairs, spent and chilled, heard her singing:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The stormy evening closes now in vain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Loud wails the wind and beats the driving rain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">While here in sheltered house<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">With fiery-painted walls,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I hear the wind abroad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i7">I hark the calling squalls&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Blow, blow,' I cry, 'you burst your cheeks in vain!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Blow, blow,' I cry, 'my love is home again!'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>On the threshold of this blessed sanctuary all of his weariness seemed
+to vanish; here he found rest and refreshment&mdash;here, at last, he had
+found fulfillment of all his dreams.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<h4>The End</h4>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<h3>"<i>The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay</i>"</h3>
+
+<h2><i>There Are Two Sides to Everything&mdash;</i></h2>
+
+<p>&mdash;including the wrapper which covers every Grosset &amp; Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
+writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset &amp;
+Dunlap book wrapper.</p>
+
+<p>You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from&mdash;books for
+every mood and every taste and every pocket-book.</p>
+
+<p><i>Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to
+the publishers for a complete catalog.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>There is a Grosset &amp; Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste</i></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2>MARGARET PEDLER'S NOVELS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<h4>THE GUARDED HALO</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The story of a girl and a man who threw away honor and reputation to
+protect untarnished the memory of a friend.</p></div>
+
+<h4>BITTER HERITAGE</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>She learned that her father, the man she had idolized, was a thief and
+a swindler&mdash;a bitter heritage not to be escaped.</p></div>
+
+<h4>YESTERDAY'S HARVEST</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The harvest of an early love brings a strange situation and triumph of
+sacrifice.</p></div>
+
+<h4>TOMORROW'S TANGLE</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The game of love is fraught with danger. To win in the finest sense it
+must be played fairly.</p></div>
+
+<h4>RED ASHES</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>A gripping story of a doctor who failed in a crucial operation and had
+only himself to blame. Could the woman he loved forgive him.</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE BARBARIAN LOVER</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>A love story based upon the creed that the only important things
+between birth and death are the courage to face life and the love to
+sweeten it.</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE MOON OUT OF REACH</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Nan Davenport's problem is one that many a girl has faced&mdash;her own
+happiness or her father's bond.</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE HOUSE OF DREAMS COME TRUE</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>How a man and a woman fulfilled a gypsy's prophecy.</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE HERMIT OF FAR END</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>How love made its way into a walled-in house and a walled-in heart.</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE LAMP OF FATE</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The story of a woman who tried to take all and give nothing.</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE SPLENDID FOLLY</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Do you believe that husbands and wives should have no secrets from
+each other?</p></div>
+
+<h4>THE VISION OF DESIRE</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It is easy to destroy illusions, difficult to restore them. Anne
+restored love from the ashes of disillusion.</p></div>
+
+<h4>WAVES OF DESTINY</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Each of these stories has the sharp impact of an emotional crisis&mdash;the
+compressed quality of one of Margaret Pedlar's widely read novels.</p></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2>NOVELS BY TEMPLE BAILEY</h2>
+
+<p class="center">May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+<blockquote><h4>BURNING BEAUTY</h4>
+
+<p>Beautiful Virginia Oliphant is loved by two men; one tempts her with
+millions, and the other tempts her with nothing more than his devotion.</p>
+
+<h4>SILVER SLIPPERS</h4>
+
+<p>Days of delight and disillusionment until Joan Dudley's knight actually
+came.</p>
+
+<h4>WALLFLOWERS</h4>
+
+<p>They were twins, they were "Wallflowers" perhaps&mdash;but they were
+beautiful, and young and real.</p>
+
+<h4>THE BLUE WINDOW</h4>
+
+<p>Hildegarde finds herself transplanted from the middle western farm to
+the gay social whirl of the East.</p>
+
+<h4>PEACOCK FEATHERS</h4>
+
+<p>Jerry, the idealist, loves Mimi, a beautiful spoiled society girl. A
+conflict of wealth and love.</p>
+
+<h4>THE DIM LANTERN</h4>
+
+<p>The romance of little Jane Barnes who is loved by two men.</p>
+
+<h4>THE GAY COCKADE</h4>
+
+<p>Unusual short stories in which Miss Bailey shows her knowledge of
+character and her skill in romance tales.</p>
+
+<h4>TRUMPETER SWAN</h4>
+
+<p>Randy Paine came back from France to the monotony of everyday affairs.
+But a girl showed him the beauty in the commonplace.</p>
+
+<h4>THE TIN SOLDIER</h4>
+
+<p>Derry wishes to serve his country but is bound by a tie he cannot in
+honor break. Jean loves him and shares his humiliation to help him win.</p>
+
+<h4>MISTRESS ANNE</h4>
+
+<p>Into the life of Anne came two men: one is weak and the other strong and
+they both need Anne.</p>
+
+<h4>CONTRARY MARY</h4>
+
+<p>An old fashioned love story that has a very modern application.</p>
+
+<h4>GLORY OF YOUTH</h4>
+
+<p>An old question yet ever new&mdash;how far should an engagement of marriage
+bind two persons who find they no longer love?</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2>RUBY M. AYRES' NOVELS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap's list.</p>
+
+
+<blockquote><ul><li>LOVERS</li>
+
+<li>ONE SUMMER</li>
+
+<li>LOVE CHANGES</li>
+
+<li>LIFE STEPS IN</li>
+
+<li>BROKEN</li>
+
+<li>CHARITY'S CHOSEN</li>
+
+<li>THE PLANTER OF THE TREE</li>
+
+<li>SPOILT MUSIC</li>
+
+<li>THE MAN WITHOUT A HEART</li>
+
+<li>A BACHELOR HUSBAND</li>
+
+<li>THE SECOND HONEYMOON</li></ul></blockquote>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2>ROMANCES OF THE MODERN GIRL</h2>
+
+<p class="center">May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a list of books by well known writers of romance stories for the
+modern girl. They are writers whose names have become famous with the
+publication of their stories as newspaper serials. These books are
+available in the Grosset &amp; Dunlap Edition.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><b>MAY CHRISTIE</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>The High Speed Girl</li>
+<li>Flirting Wives</li>
+<li>The Jazz Widow</li>
+<li>Love's Miracle</li>
+<li>A Kiss For Corinna</li>
+<li>Eager Love</li>
+<li>Man Madness</li>
+<li>Love's Ecstasy</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p><b>ALMA SIOUX SCARBERRY</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>Make-Up</li>
+<li>The Dimpled Racketeer</li>
+<li>The Flat Tire</li>
+<li>High Hat</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p><b>BEATRICE BURTON</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>The Little Yellow House</li>
+<li>Easy</li>
+<li>Money Love</li>
+<li>The Hollywood Girl</li>
+<li>Honey Lou</li>
+<li>The Flapper Wife</li>
+<li>Her Man</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p><b>ROBERT D. ANDREWS</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>The Stolen Husband</li>
+<li>Three Girls Lost</li>
+<li>One Girl Found</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p><b>ROB EDEN</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>The Lovely Liar</li>
+<li>Step-Child</li>
+<li>Love Blind</li>
+<li>The Girl with Red Hair</li>
+<li>Short Skirts</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p><b>ELENORE MEHERIN</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>Miss Pat</li>
+<li>Jerry</li>
+<li>Chickie</li>
+<li>Chickie, A Sequel</li>
+<li>Nora Lee</li>
+<li>Sandy</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p><b>LAURA LOU BROOKMAN</b></p>
+
+
+<ul><li>Tarnished</li>
+<li>Mad Marriage</li>
+<li>Heart Hungry</li>
+<li>As No Woman Hath Loved</li>
+<li>Her Love Problem</li>
+<li>Playmate</li>
+<li>The Heart Bandit</li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<p><b>JANE DIXON</b></p>
+
+<ul><li>Miss Hard Boiled</li></ul>
+
+
+<p><b>ANNE GARDNER</b></p>
+
+<ul><li>Working Wives</li></ul></blockquote>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2>THE NOVELS OF SINCLAIR LEWIS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.</p>
+
+<h4>Within the space of a few years Sinclair Lewis has become one of the
+most Distinguished of American Novelists.</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p><b>ELMER GANTRY</b></p>
+
+<p>Elmer Gantry, hypocrite and voluptuary, is painted against a background
+of church members and professing Christians scarcely less hypocritical
+than he. In this book Sinclair Lewis adds a violent stroke to his
+growing picture of materialistic America.</p>
+
+<p><b>MANTRAP</b></p>
+
+<p>A clever satire on the adventures of a New York lawyer seeking rest and
+diversion in the northwoods. Instead of rest he finds trouble in the
+person of his host's wife&mdash;young, pretty and flirtatious.</p>
+
+<p><b>ARROWSMITH</b></p>
+
+<p>The story of a country doctor whose search for truth led him to the
+heights of the medical profession, to the heights and depths of love and
+marriage and to final peace as a quietly heroic laboratory worker in the
+backwoods of Vermont.</p>
+
+<p><b>BABBITT</b></p>
+
+<p>Every man will recognize in the character of George Babbitt, something
+of himself. He was a booster and a joiner, but behind all of his
+activities was a wistful wonder as to what life holds.</p>
+
+<p><b>MAIN STREET</b></p>
+
+<p>Carol Kennicott's attempt to bring life and culture to Gopher Prairie
+and Gopher Prairie's reaction toward her teachings have made this book
+one of the most famous of the last decade.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' /></blockquote>
+
+<h2>THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL</h2>
+
+<p class="center">May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.</p>
+
+
+<blockquote><ul><li>THE PRODIGAL GIRL</li>
+<li>DUSKIN</li>
+<li>CRIMSON ROSES</li>
+<li>OUT OF THE STORM</li>
+<li>THE HONOR GIRL</li>
+<li>JOB'S NIECE</li>
+<li>COMING THROUGH THE RYE</li>
+<li>A NEW NAME</li>
+<li>ARIEL CUSTER</li>
+<li>THE BEST MAN</li>
+<li>THE CITY OF FIRE</li>
+<li>CLOUDY JEWEL</li>
+<li>DAWN OF THE MORNING</li>
+<li>THE ENCHANTED BARN</li>
+<li>EXIT BETTY</li>
+<li>THE FINDING OF JASPER HOLT</li>
+<li>THE GIRL FROM MONTANA</li>
+<li>LO, MICHAEL</li>
+<li>THE MAN OF THE DESERT</li>
+<li>MARCIA SCHUYLER</li>
+<li>MIRANDA</li>
+<li>THE MYSTERY OF MARY</li>
+<li>PHOEBE DEANE</li>
+<li>THE RED SIGNAL</li>
+<li>THE SEARCH</li>
+<li>TOMORROW ABOUT THIS TIME</li>
+<li>THE TRYST</li>
+<li>THE WITNESS</li>
+<li>NOT UNDER THE LAW</li>
+<li>RE-CREATIONS</li>
+<li>THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS</li></ul>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p class="center">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, <i>Publishers</i>, NEW YORK</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Glory of Youth, by Temple Bailey
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,9249 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Glory of Youth, by Temple Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Glory of Youth
+
+Author: Temple Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Henry Hutt
+             C. S. Corson
+
+Release Date: August 10, 2007 [EBook #22292]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLORY OF YOUTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Paul Stephen and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HE IMPRISONED THE SMALL HAND]
+
+
+GLORY OF
+YOUTH
+
+BY
+TEMPLE BAILEY
+
+AUTHOR OF
+CONTRARY MARY
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+HENRY HUTT and C. S. CORSON
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+[Illustration: Publishers mark]
+
+First printing, August, 1913 Second printing, February, 1916 Third
+printing February, 1917 Fourth printing August, 1919
+
+Manufacturing Plant
+
+Camden, N. J.
+
+
+
+
+The Glory of Youth
+
+
+
+
+   _To
+My Mother_
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+    I. BETTINA                                        9
+
+   II. IN THE SHADOWY ROOM                           21
+
+  III. IN WHICH DIANA REAPS                          36
+
+   IV. WHITE LILACS                                  51
+
+    V. IN WHICH BETTINA DANCES                       64
+
+   VI. "FOR EVERY MAN THERE IS JUST ONE WOMAN"       80
+
+  VII. HARBOR LIGHT                                  94
+
+ VIII. THE EMPTY HOUSE                              105
+
+   IX. THE GOLDEN AGE                               116
+
+    X. STORM SIGNALS                                127
+
+   XI. THE WHITE MAIDEN                             141
+
+  XII. YOUTH AND BEAUTY                             155
+
+ XIII. HER LETTER TO ANTHONY                        170
+
+  XIV. THE LITTLE SILVER RING                       185
+
+   XV. IN WHICH BETTINA FLIES                       199
+
+  XVI. VOICES IN THE DARK                           213
+
+ XVII. GLORY OF YOUTH                               227
+
+XVIII. PENANCE                                      242
+
+  XIX. HER FATHER'S RING                            257
+
+   XX. THE "GRAY GULL"                              272
+
+  XXI. BROKEN WINGS                                 285
+
+ XXII. THE ENCHANTED FOREST                         300
+
+XXIII. THE PROCESSION OF PRETTY LADIES              316
+
+ XXIV. THE AFTERGLOW                                323
+
+
+
+
+Glory of Youth
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BETTINA
+
+
+The girl knelt on the floor, feverishly packing a shabby little trunk.
+
+Outside was a streaming April storm, and the rain, rushing against the
+square, small-paned windows, shut out the view of the sea, shut out the
+light, and finally brought such darkness that the girl stood up with a
+sigh, brushed off her black dress with thin white hands, and groped her
+way to the door.
+
+Beyond the door was the blackness of an upper hall in a tall century-old
+house. A spiral stairway descended into a well of gloom. An ancient iron
+lantern, attached to a chain, hung from the low ceiling.
+
+The girl lighted the lantern, and the faint illumination made deeper the
+shadows below.
+
+And from the shadows came a man's voice.
+
+"May I come up?"
+
+As the girl bent over the railing, the glow of the lantern made of her
+hair a shining halo. "Oh," she cried, radiantly, "I'm so glad you've
+come. I--I was afraid----"
+
+The thunder rolled, the waves pounded on the rocks, and the darkness
+grew more dense, but now the girl did not heed, for what mattered a mere
+storm, when, ascending the stairs, was one who knew fear neither of life
+nor of death, nor of the things which come after death?
+
+When at last her visitor emerged from the gloom, he showed himself
+beyond youthful years, with hair slightly touched with gray, not tall,
+but of a commanding presence, with clear, keen blue eyes, and with
+cheeks which were tanned by out-of-door exercise, and reddened by the
+prevailing weather.
+
+"I just had to come," he said, as he took her hand. "I knew you'd be
+frightened."
+
+"Yes," she said, "Miss Matthews is at school, and I am alone----"
+
+"And unhappy?"
+
+Her lips quivered, but she drew her hand from his, and went on into the
+shabby room, where she lighted a candle in a brass holder, and touched a
+match to a fire which was laid in the blackened brick fireplace.
+
+The doctor's quick eye noted the preparations for departure.
+
+"What does that mean?" he asked, and pointed to the trunk.
+
+"I--I am going away----"
+
+"Away?"
+
+"Yes," nervously; "I--I can't stay here, doctor."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh," tremulously, "it was all right when I had mother, because she was
+so sick that I was too busy to realize how deadly lonely it was here. I
+knew she needed the sea air, and she could get it better in the top of
+this old house than anywhere else. But now that she's gone--I can't
+stand it. I'm young, and Miss Matthews is away all day teaching--and
+when she comes home at night we have nothing in common, and there's the
+money left from the insurance--and so--I'm going away."
+
+He looked at her, with her red-gold hair in high relief against the worn
+leather of the chair in which she sat, at the flower-like face, the
+slender figure, the tiny feet in childish strapped slippers.
+
+"You aren't fit to fight the world," he said; "you aren't fit."
+
+"Perhaps it won't be such a fight," she said. "I could get something to
+do in the city, and----"
+
+He shook his head. "You don't know--you can't know----" Then he broke
+off to ask, "What would you do with your furniture?"
+
+"Miss Matthews would be glad to take the rooms just as they are. She was
+delighted when you asked her to stay with me after mother died. She
+loves our old things, the mahogany and the banjo clock, and the
+embroidered peacocks, and the Venetian heirlooms that belonged to Dad's
+family. But I hate them."
+
+"Hate them--why?"
+
+"Because, oh, you know, because Dad treated mother so dreadfully. He
+broke her heart."
+
+His practiced eye saw that she was speaking tensely.
+
+"I wish you'd get me a cup of tea," he said, suddenly. "I'm just from
+the sanatorium. I operated on a bad case--and, well, that's sufficient
+excuse, isn't it, for me to want to drink a cup of tea with you?"
+
+She was busy in a moment with her hospitality.
+
+"Oh, why didn't you tell me? And you're wet." Her hand touched his coat
+lightly as she passed him.
+
+"The rain came so suddenly that I couldn't get the window of my car
+closed; it's an awful storm.
+
+"And now," he said, when she had brought the tea on an old Sheffield
+tray, and had set it on a little folding table which he placed between
+them on the hearth, "and now let's talk about it."
+
+"Please don't try to make me stay----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because, oh, because you can't know what I suffer here; it isn't just
+because I've lost mother, but the people--they all know about her and
+about Dad, and they aren't nice to me."
+
+"My dear child!"
+
+"Perhaps it's because father was a singer and an Italian, and mother
+came of good old Puritan stock. They seem to think she lowered herself
+by marrying him. They can't understand that though he was unkind to her,
+he belonged to an aristocratic Venetian family----"
+
+"It's from those wonderful women of Venice, then, that you get that
+hair. Do you remember Browning's:
+
+    "'Dear dead women, with such hair, too--what's become of all the gold
+      Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.'"
+
+There was no response to his thought in her young eyes.
+
+"I've never read Browning," she said, negligently, "and I hate to think
+of 'dear dead women.' I want to think of live things, of bright things,
+of gay things. It seems sometimes as if I should die here among the
+shadows."
+
+She was sobbing now, with her head on the table.
+
+"Bettina," the doctor bent over her, "poor child, poor little child."
+
+"Please let me go," she whispered.
+
+"I can't keep you, of course. I wish I knew what to do. I wish Diana
+were here."
+
+"Diana?"
+
+"I forgot that you did not know her. She has been away for two years.
+She's rather wonderful, Bettina."
+
+The girl raised her head. The man was gazing straight into the fire. All
+the eager light that had made his face seem young had gone, and he
+looked worn and tired. Bettina had no worldly intuitions to teach her
+the reason for the change a woman's name had wrought, and so absorbed
+was she in her own trouble that she viewed the transformation with
+unseeing eyes.
+
+"What could she do if she were here?" she asked with childish
+directness.
+
+"She would find some way out of it--she is very wise." He spoke with
+some hesitation, as a man speaks who holds a subject sacred. "She has
+had to decide things for herself all her life--her father and mother
+died when she was a little girl; now she is over thirty and the mistress
+of a large fortune. She spends her winters in the city and her summers
+down here by the sea--but for the past two years she has been staying in
+Europe with a widowed friend who was a schoolmate of hers in Berlin."
+
+"When is she coming back?"
+
+Out of a long silence, he answered, "I am not sure that she will come
+back. Her engagement was announced last fall--to a German, Ulric Van
+Rosen--she is to be married in June."
+
+The fact, to him so pregnant of woeful possibilities, meant little to
+Bettina.
+
+"Of course if she's not here, she can't do anything--and anyhow most
+people don't care to do practical things to help, do they?"
+
+She looked so childish, so appealing, so altogether exquisite and young
+in her black-robed slenderness, that he answered her as he would have
+answered a child.
+
+"It's too bad that the world should hurt you."
+
+"But I'm going to do wonderful things in the city."
+
+"Wonderful things--poor little girl----"
+
+As he brought his eyes back from the fire to her face, he seemed to
+bring his thoughts back from an uneasy reverie.
+
+"You ought," he said, "to marry----"
+
+The color flamed into the girl's cheeks. "Mother was always saying that,
+in those last days. But I hated to have her; it seemed so dreadful to
+talk of marriage--without love. I know she didn't mean it that way, poor
+darling! She married for love and her life was such a failure. But I
+couldn't--not just to get married, could I--not just to have some one
+take care of me?"
+
+He stood up, and thrust his hands in his pockets. "No," he agreed
+bluffly, "you couldn't, of course."
+
+"And there's never been any one in love with me," was her naive
+confession, "and I've never been in love, not really----"
+
+He was looking down at her with smiling eyes. "There's plenty of time."
+
+"Yes--that's what I always told mother--but she dreaded to think of
+me--alone."
+
+The eager, dying woman had said the same thing to the doctor, and it had
+seemed to him, sometimes, that her burning eyes had begged of him a
+favor which he could not grant.
+
+For there had always been--Diana!
+
+He straightened his shoulders. "I'm going to ask you to stay here," he
+said, "instead of going to the city. I haven't any real right to keep
+you, for I'm not legally your guardian, but I promised your mother to
+look after you. I can find work for you. We need some one at the
+sanatorium to look after the office----"
+
+For a moment she set her will against his. "But I'd rather go to the
+city."
+
+He put his strong hands on her shoulders. "Little child, look at me," he
+said, and when she flashed up at him a startled glance, he went on,
+gently, "Your mother wanted me to take care of you--to keep you from
+harm. In the city you'll be too far away. I want you to stay here. Will
+you?"
+
+And presently she whispered, "I will stay."
+
+Outside the rain was rushing and the wind was blowing, and plain little
+Miss Matthews battled with the storm. Miss Matthews, who, every day in
+the year, taught a class of tumultuous children, and whose life dealt
+always with the commonplace. And it was plain little Miss Matthews who,
+having weathered the storm and climbed the winding stairs, came in,
+rain-coated and soft-hatted, to find by the fire the doctor drawing on
+his gloves and Bettina hovering about him like a gold-tipped butterfly.
+
+"It's a dreadful storm," said Miss Matthews, superfluously, as Bettina
+went to get boiling water. "There's a young man down-stairs who wants to
+speak to you, Dr. Blake. He said that he couldn't find you at the
+sanatorium. He saw your car in front of the house and knew you were
+here. But the bell wouldn't ring, and so he waited. I told him the bell
+was broken and that you'd come down at once. He's hurt his hand."
+
+"They would have fixed him up at the sanatorium."
+
+"He said he wanted you, and nobody else, and that he came into the hall
+because he was like a pussy cat and hated the rain. He is a queer
+looking creature in a leather cap and leather leggins."
+
+The doctor gave an amused laugh. "That's Justin Ford," he said; "the
+pussy-cat speech sounds like him, and he wears the leather costume when
+he flies."
+
+Bettina, coming back with fresh tea for Miss Matthews, asked, "How does
+he fly?"
+
+"In an aeroplane. He's to try out his hydro-aeroplane to-morrow. He's
+probably been at work on the machinery and hurt his hand."
+
+Bettina sparkled. "Think of a man who can fly," she said. "Doesn't it
+sound incredible?"
+
+"It's the most marvelous thing in the world," said the big-hearted
+surgeon, not knowing that he, as a man of healing, was more marvelous,
+for he had to do with the mechanics of flesh and blood, while Justin had
+to do only with steel and aluminum and canvas, which are, at best,
+unimportant things when compared with nerves and ligaments and bones.
+
+"Would you mind if Ford came up?" the doctor asked. "I've got to go
+straight to my old man with the pneumonia after I leave here, and I
+could look at his hand."
+
+Bettina shivered. "Shall I have to look at it?" she asked in a little
+voice.
+
+He laughed. "Of course not. You can go in the other room."
+
+But when the young man, who had answered the doctors call, entered, she
+did not go, for the face which was framed by the leather cap was that of
+a youth whose beauty matched her own, and whose mocking eyes, as he
+acknowledged the introduction, seemed to beat against the door of her
+maiden heart and demand admission.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IN THE SHADOWY ROOM
+
+
+The injury to Justin's hand proved to be one of strain and sprain.
+
+"A bandage for a few days," the doctor pronounced, "and then a little
+carefulness, and you'll be all right."
+
+Justin lingered. The little fire was like a heart of gold in the shadowy
+room. Plain little Miss Matthews sipped her tea, with her feet on the
+fender. Bettina, during the doctor's examination of Justin's hand, had
+seated herself in her low chair on the hearth, and now her eyes were
+fixed steadily on the flames.
+
+"It's a shivery, shaky sort of day," said Justin, surveying the teapot
+longingly, and Anthony laughed. "He wants his tea, Bettina," he said,
+"and a place by your fire. It's another of his pussy-cat traits--so if
+you'll be good to him, I'll have another cup, and he shall tell us about
+his hydro-aeroplane."
+
+Justin, standing in front of the fire, was like a young god fresh from
+Olympus. His nose was straight, his mocking eyes a golden-brown, and,
+with his cap off, his upstanding shock of hair showed glittering lights.
+In deference to the prevailing fashion, his fair little mustache was
+slightly upturned at the corners. He had doffed his rain coat, and
+appeared in a brown Norfolk suit with leather leggins that reached his
+knees.
+
+"I'm afraid I've intruded upon your hospitality," he said to Bettina, as
+she handed him a steaming cup, "but I'm always falling into pleasant
+things--and I haven't the will power to get out when I should, truly I
+haven't. But it isn't my fault--it's just a part of my pussy-cat
+inheritance."
+
+"He can afford to say such things," Anthony remarked; "he's really more
+like a bird than a pussy cat. You should see him up in the air."
+
+Justin's eyes flashed. "You should see me coming down on the water after
+a flight. By Jove, Anthony, that's the most wonderful little machine.
+I've called her 'The Gray Gull' because she not only flies but
+swims--cuts through the water like a motor boat."
+
+As he talked his eyes were on Bettina. "You beauty, you beauty," was
+the thought which thrilled him.
+
+When, at last, he stood up, he apologized somewhat formally. "I've
+stayed too long," he said, "but Anthony must make my excuses. I was down
+there in Purgatory--and he showed me--Paradise."
+
+The doctor looked at him sharply. He knew Justin as a man of the
+world--gay, irresponsible--and Bettina had no one to watch over her.
+
+"I'll take you as far as the shops," he said, crisply, "and then I must
+get at once to my old man with the pneumonia."
+
+As the two men rode away in the doctor's small covered car, Justin
+asked, "Where did you discover her?" Anthony, his eyes fixed on the
+muddy road ahead of them, gave a brief outline: "Professionally. The
+mother died in those rooms. The girl is alone, except for Miss Matthews
+and the old Lane sisters who own the house and live in the lower part. I
+have constituted myself a sort of guardian for Bettina--the mother
+requested it, and I couldn't refuse."
+
+"I see." Justin asked no more questions, but settled himself back in a
+cushioned corner, and as the two men rode on in silence, their thoughts
+were centered on the single vision of a shadowy room, and of a slender
+golden-haired, black-robed figure against a background of glowing flame.
+
+All that night and the next day the doctor battled with Death, and came
+out triumphant. By four o'clock in the afternoon the old man with
+pneumonia showed signs of holding his own.
+
+Worn out, Anthony drove back toward the sanatorium. The rain was over,
+but a heavy fog had rolled in, so that the doctor's little car seemed to
+float in a sea of cloud. Now and then another car passed him,
+specter-like amid the grayness. Silent figures, magnified by the mist,
+came and went like shadow pictures on a screen. From the far distance
+sounded the incessant moan of fog-horns.
+
+Anthony stopped his car in front of a small shop, whose lights struggled
+faintly against the gloom.
+
+Crossing the threshold, he went from a world of dampness and chill into
+the warmth and cheer of an old-fashioned fish house.
+
+For fifty years there had been no change in Lillibridge's. The floor of
+the main room was bare and clean, and, in the middle, a round black
+stove radiated comfort on cold days. Along one side of the room ran
+three stalls, in which were placed tables for such patrons as might
+desire partial privacy. On the spick and span counter were set forth
+various condiments and plates of crackers. A card, tacked up on the
+wall, tempted the appetite with its list of sea foods.
+
+Anthony wanted nothing to eat. He ordered coffee, and went into one of
+the stalls to drink it.
+
+But a man at one of the tables in the main part of the room wanted more
+than coffee. He was a little man in a blue reefer, but he had,
+evidently, more than a little appetite. As Anthony sat down, he was just
+finishing a bowl of chowder, and was gazing with eyes of hungry
+appreciation upon various dishes of fried fish and fried potatoes, of
+hot rolls and pickles which were being set before him.
+
+"You'd better have some, doctor," was his hoarse invitation.
+
+"Too tired," said Anthony. "I'll wait till I've had a bath and rub-down
+before I eat----"
+
+"What you need," said the little man, between large mouthfuls, "is a
+good day's fishin'. You come out to-morrow morning, and we'll catch some
+cod."
+
+The doctor's tired eyes brightened. "There's nothing that I'd like
+better, captain, but I've got an old man ill of pneumonia, and there's
+a girl with appendicitis."
+
+"There you go," said the little man; "if it wasn't a girl with
+appendicitis, it would be a kid with the colic, or a lady with a claim
+to heart trouble. What you've got to do, doctor, is to cut it all out
+and come with me."
+
+Anthony shook his head. "Suppose some one had said to you when you
+sailed the seas that you could leave the ship----?"
+
+"I shouldn't have left," said the little man, "but I didn't have such a
+look as you've got in your eyes. What you need is a good night's sleep,
+and a day's fishin'. And you need it now."
+
+Having eaten presently his last morsel, he ordered a piece of pie.
+"There's nothing like sea air to blow your brains clear," he stated.
+"And when this fog lifts, it'll be fine fishin' weather."
+
+Again the doctor shook his head. "I'd like it, more than a little, but
+I've got to stick to my post."
+
+Captain Stubbs began on his pie, and remarked, "The trouble with you is
+that you're mixed up with too many wimmen."
+
+Anthony's head went up. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Wimmen," said the little captain, "are bad enough anyhow. But when you
+have to handle a lot of wimmen with nerves, then the Lord help you."
+
+He said it so solemnly that Anthony threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"Now, up at that sannytarium of yours," said the captain, "there's about
+ten of them that need to be dipped into the good salt sea and hung up in
+the sun to dry, and that's all they need, no coddling and medicine and
+operations--but just a cold shock and a warm-up--and a day's fishin'."
+
+And now Anthony did not laugh. "By Jove," he said, "I believe you're
+right. I'm going to try some personally conducted parties, and you shall
+take them out, captain----"
+
+"Me----?" the captain demanded, incredulously. "Me take those wimmen out
+fishin'?"
+
+Anthony nodded. "Yes, once a week. Is it a bargain?"
+
+The captain stood up. "No, it ain't," he said, firmly. "I'll take you
+and gladly. But not any of that nervous bunch."
+
+He settled his cap firmly on his head, and went toward the door. Then he
+turned. "Some day," he said, "I'm going to ask that Betty child to go
+out in my boat."
+
+"Bettina?" Anthony's mind went swiftly to the shadowed room.
+
+"Yes. She's lonesome, and so was her mother. I used to take fish up to
+them, and I showed the Betty child how to make chowder."
+
+"She told me," said Anthony. "You're one of her best friends, captain."
+
+"Well, goodness only knows she needs friends," said the little captain,
+adding with a significant emphasis which escaped the preoccupied
+Anthony, "She needs somebody to take care of her."
+
+Receiving no response, the little man lighted his pipe, buttoned his
+coat, and, remarking genially, "Well, you let me know about that day's
+fishin'," he steamed out.
+
+After his departure Anthony sat for some time in the deserted room. He
+knew that rest and refreshment were waiting for him and he knew that he
+needed them, but his mind was weighed down by the problem of that
+helpless child in the old house. All through the night as he had battled
+for the life of his patient, he had thought of her, who must battle with
+the world. He could get her work, of course, but he shrank from the
+thought of her pale loveliness set to sordid uses.
+
+With a sudden gesture of resolution, he stood up and drew on his gloves.
+
+Ten minutes later he was climbing the winding stairway, where the iron
+lantern again illumined the darkness.
+
+There had been no response to his call from below, and when he reached
+the upper landing he found the door shut. He knocked and presently
+Bettina came. He saw at a glance that she had been crying.
+
+"I can stay only a minute," he said. "I haven't had much sleep since I
+saw you yesterday."
+
+"I'll make you some tea," she offered, but he stopped her with a quick,
+"No, no,--I've just had coffee, and I must get home."
+
+They sat down, somewhat stiffly, on opposite sides of the hearth.
+
+"What made you cry?" he asked, with his keen eyes on her downcast face.
+
+"Everything--the rain yesterday--the fog to-day. I wish the sun would
+shine--I wish--I were--dead----"
+
+With a sharp exclamation, he stood up. "You're too young to say such
+things--there's all of life before you."
+
+"Yes," she said dully, "there's all of life----"
+
+To him she was a most appealing figure. Her weakness seemed to stand out
+against the background of his strength. Suddenly he held out his hands
+to her. "Come here, Betty child," he said, using, unconsciously, the
+little captain's name for her, "come here."
+
+Some new note in his voice made her cheeks flame, but she obeyed him. He
+took both of her hands in his. "I've been thinking of you, and your
+future. Somehow I can't see you, a little slip of a thing like you,
+being beaten and bruised by the hard things of life. The world is cruel
+and you are so--sweet. You need some one to take care of you----"
+
+"Yes," she whispered; "but there isn't any one."
+
+"Except me. And I'm such an old fellow--years too old for you. But I'm
+alone, and you're alone. Could I make you happy, Betty child?"
+
+She stared at him, all the bright color gone from her face.
+
+"Why, how?" Her voice fluttered and died.
+
+"As my wife. There's the big house on the rocks that I am building."
+
+He faltered. The great house had been built for Diana, on a sudden
+hopeful impulse that when it was finished she would consent to be its
+mistress.
+
+"There's the big house," he went on, after a moment, "and there's money
+enough and to spare. Not that I want you to marry me for that, but I
+think I could comfort you in your loneliness, Bettina."
+
+In her secluded girlhood there had been no opportunity for masculine
+adoration; hence there seemed nothing lacking when this man of men,
+whose coming during her mother's illness had made the one bright spot in
+her day, whose sympathy had comforted her in her sorrow, whose
+friendship had sustained her in the months which had followed her great
+loss, when he spoke of marriage with never a word of love.
+
+"But I'm not wise enough or good enough," she said, with a quick catch
+of her breath.
+
+He drew her to him, holding her gently.
+
+"Would you like," he asked, "would you like to think that all your life
+I should take care of you?"
+
+She lay quietly, not answering for a while, then she whispered, "Do you
+really want me?"
+
+Perhaps his arm relaxed a little, but his voice was very steady. "I
+really want to make you happy."
+
+"And you'll let me love you with all my heart?" Her eyes were hidden.
+
+He put his hand against the softness of her hair, turning her face up
+toward him. "I shall hope that you may love me with all your heart, and
+that I may be worthy of it."
+
+Her hand crept up and touched his cheek. "Kiss me," she whispered, like
+a child.
+
+He would have been less than a man if his heart had not leaped a little,
+if he had not responded to the love call of this wistful white and gold
+woman creature.
+
+"My dear," he said, brokenly, and bent his head.
+
+On the foggy streets below men and women passed and repassed like ghosts
+in the stillness. Little Miss Matthews, meeting Captain Stubbs on a
+street corner, was unconscious of his nearness until the little captain,
+guided by that sixth sense, which is given to sailors for their
+protection at sea, hailed her.
+
+"You needn't hurry home," he told her; "that Betty child don't want you.
+Dr. Blake is there. That's his car."
+
+"He was there yesterday," said Miss Matthews, disturbed by the doctor's
+departure from his usual routine.
+
+"And he'll probably be there to-morrow; he's getting sweet on that Betty
+child, Miss Mattie."
+
+"Oh, dear, no," said the shocked Miss Matthews. "Why, he's in love with
+Diana Gregory."
+
+The captain gazed at her blankly. "You don't mean it," he protested.
+
+"Yes, I do," said Miss Matthews; "they've known each other all their
+lives. But she doesn't want to settle down."
+
+"Well, she'd better look out," said the little captain; "men won't wait
+forever."
+
+"Men like Anthony Blake," returned Miss Matthews with conviction, "will.
+And as for Bettina, she's nothing but a child!"
+
+The little captain carried the conversation over, tactfully, to his
+favorite topic. "I want you and that Betty child to go with me for a
+day's fishin' soon," he said; "you just name the day."
+
+Little Miss Matthews hated the sea, with the hatred of a woman whose
+ancestors had made their living on the Banks and had been drowned in
+storms. But she liked the captain. "I am sure you are very kind," she
+said, primly, "but it will have to be Saturday when there isn't any
+school."
+
+"All right," said the captain,--"make it a week from Saturday, and we'll
+probably have clearing weather."
+
+The doctor, going down, met little Miss Matthews. Bettina, leaning over
+the rail, greeted the little lady somewhat self-consciously. "I'll make
+your tea in a minute," she said; "the doctor didn't want any."
+
+When Anthony reached the bottom of the stair, he looked up. The faint
+light of the lantern drew a circle of radiance about Bettina's head.
+
+"Wait," she called softly, and came down to him, and in the darkness
+whispered that she was happy, so very happy--and would she see him soon?
+
+"To-morrow," he promised, and went away with his pulses pounding.
+
+All the way home he thought of her. She had been charming. He felt like
+an adventuring knight, who, having killed all the dragons, rescues the
+captive princess from her tower. She was a dear child. A dear--child.
+
+At the sanatorium he had a bath and a good dinner, and made his rounds.
+One little woman, when he had passed, spoke to another of his smile. "It
+is as if he were happy in his heart," she said, quaintly; "before this
+his eyes have been sad."
+
+Later the doctor found time to read his mail. On the top of the pile of
+letters was a thick one in a gray envelope addressed in feminine script.
+He opened it and read eagerly. Then he sat very still, trying, amid all
+the beating agony of emotion, to grasp the truth as she had told it.
+Diana was free. Her engagement was broken. She was coming back to
+America. "I am coming home to the big house--and to you--Anthony." And
+she would be there in just ten days!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+IN WHICH DIANA REAPS
+
+
+All the way down in the train Diana kept saying to her friend, "I am so
+glad you are going to see my house, Sophie. You can't imagine how lovely
+it is."
+
+But even then Mrs. Martens was not prepared. She was given a room on the
+third floor from which glass doors opened on a little balcony which
+overhung the harbor. It was like the upper deck of a ship with the open
+sea to the right and left, and with a strip of green peninsula cutting
+into it beyond the causeway.
+
+"That's the Neck," Diana explained; "the yacht clubs are over there and
+some hotels and big houses. But I like it on this side, in the town.
+It's so quaint and lovely. I'll show you some of it to-morrow morning."
+
+"I'm not going anywhere to-morrow morning. I am going to sleep until
+noon."
+
+Diana bent and kissed her. "Poor thing, is she tired?"
+
+"Dead."
+
+"Well, I won't wake you. But I am going to be up with the dawn, Sophie."
+
+Mrs. Martens turned and looked at her. "Is Anthony here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Diana caught her breath as she said it, and the two friends stood,
+silently, looking over the harbor.
+
+The twilight was taking the blue out of the water, but the beauty was
+still there--with the lights on the anchored boats twinkling like stars
+in the grayness, and the lighthouse making a great moon above them.
+
+"When will you see him, Diana?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+"Then I'm going to bed."
+
+"You're not--I want you to meet him, Sophie."
+
+"You want him every bit for yourself. Don't be a hypocrite, Diana."
+
+Diana laid her hands on Sophie's shoulders and shook her a little,
+laughing.
+
+"Sophie, do you ever feel so young that you are almost wild with it--as
+if there hadn't been any years since you wore pinafores and pigtails?"
+
+"No--I'm thirty-five, Diana."
+
+"Don't shout it from the housetops. I'm a very few years behind. What a
+lot of wasted years, Sophie."
+
+"It's your own fault, Diana."
+
+"But I wanted to be free----"
+
+"And now you are longing for your prison----"
+
+"With Anthony--yes."
+
+"You'd better go down and dress, dear. Put on that pale blue, with your
+pearls, Diana. It fits in with the moonlight."
+
+"Then you won't come down?"
+
+"No. I'll have Peter for company."
+
+Peter Pan was Diana's cat. He was as yellow as a harvest moon, he was
+fed on fish, and was of a prodigious fatness. During Diana's sojourn
+abroad he had been looked after by Delia Hobbs.
+
+Delia was Diana's housekeeper. She had a lame hip and a lovely mind. She
+went up to Mrs. Martens' room after Diana had left to see if the little
+lady was comfortable for the night.
+
+She eyed Peter Pan, who was in the middle of the big bed.
+
+"Peter," she said, severely, "that's no place for you."
+
+Peter rolled over, and clawed the lace spread luxuriously.
+
+"Shall I take him off, ma'am?" Delia asked.
+
+"It's nice to have him here," said Mrs. Martens, doubtfully, "but
+perhaps I ought not to let him stay. You know best, Delia."
+
+Delia, a little flattered by such deference, hesitated. "I might bring
+his basket up here," she said; "he isn't a bit of trouble. He just goes
+to sleep and doesn't wake up until morning."
+
+As Delia opened the door to go down, the rippling measures of "The
+Spring Song," played softly, came up to them. Sophie had a vision of
+Diana in her shimmering gown, waiting in the moonlight for Anthony.
+
+Delia came back with the basket. It was of brown wicker with brown
+cushions. Peter, curled up in it, made a sunflower combination.
+
+"You are sure you're all right, Miss Sophie?" Delia asked as she stood
+on the threshold. "If you don't want the electric light, there's a
+candle on your table, and if you like the air straight from the sea you
+can open the door on the porch. Miss Diana used to like to lie and look
+at the moonlight."
+
+The whole world seemed obsessed by the moonlight. Its white radiance,
+when Mrs. Martens at last turned off the glaring bulbs, seemed to cast a
+spell over sea and land. She stepped out on the porch, and was awed by
+the beauty of the wide sweep of shining sky and sea. Then, far below on
+the hidden road, she heard the beat of a motor.
+
+The sound ceased and a man's quick step came up the path. There was the
+whirr of an electric bell, and she knew that Anthony had come.
+
+Well, Diana had her Anthony--and she had--Peter! She laughed a little to
+stifle a sigh. Diana had the substance--she her shadowy memories.
+
+A faint breeze had sprung up. The yachts tugged at their moorings
+as the tide turned. Far to the southeast Minot's light blinked its
+one-four-three--"I-warn-you"--message to the ships. Diana had
+once said of it, "The sweethearts off the coast translate it
+differently--'I-love-you.' That's what Anthony told me."
+
+How she had always quoted him! Even when for a brief time she had
+drifted toward that other, she had clung to her belief in Anthony's
+faith and goodness--and when she had shaken herself free she had flown
+back to him.
+
+And now--in the dim room below Diana was coming at last into her own!
+
+The little lady crept into bed, shivering--perhaps with the chill of
+the spring night, perhaps with the thought of the happiness from which
+she was left out.
+
+Presently she heard again the beat of the motor. Beginning in front of
+the house, it grew fainter in the distance; then silence, and at last a
+soft step on the stairs.
+
+"Sophie," there was that in Diana's voice which made her sit up and
+listen, "Sophie, are you asleep?"
+
+Mrs. Martens lighted the bedside candle with shaking hands. Diana came
+forward into the circle of light. Diana--with all of youth gone from
+her. Diana stripped of joy. Diana with the shimmering blue gown seeming
+to mock the tragedy in her face.
+
+She came up to the bed and stood looking down at her friend.
+
+"Listen, Sophie," she said, brokenly, "see what I've done. Anthony is
+engaged, Sophie. Engaged to another girl!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Peter, in his basket, slept soundly all night. But Sophie slept not at
+all. And early in the morning she went down to her friend.
+
+Diana had taken the room which had been her mother's. She had kept the
+carved canopy bed and other massive pieces, but she had changed the
+hangings and the wall covering from mauve to rose-color.
+
+"You see, Sophie," she had explained one day in Berlin, "there comes a
+time in the life of every woman when she needs rose-color to counteract
+the gray of her existence. If you put blue with gray you get gray. But
+if you put pink with gray you get rose-color. Perhaps you didn't know
+that before, Sophie, but now you do. And you'll know also that when I
+dare wear a blue gown I am feeling positively infantile."
+
+Diana, in neglige, had always made Mrs. Martens think of a rose in
+bloom. She had a fashion of swathing her head, cap-fashion, in wide pink
+ribbon, and her crepe kimonos always reflected the same enchanting hue.
+
+But this morning it was a white rose which lay back on the pillows.
+Diana's loose brown braids hung straight down on each side of her pale
+face. There were shadows under her eyes.
+
+"Don't look at me that way, Sophie," she said, sharply, as Mrs. Martens
+came up to the bed. "I--I'm not going into a decline--or break my
+heart--or----"
+
+She broke off and said in a changed voice, "You're a dear." Then with a
+pitiful little laugh, "It wouldn't be so hard--but she's so young,
+Sophie."
+
+"Eighteen--poor Anthony!"
+
+"Do you think he is really unhappy, Sophie?"
+
+The night before when she had lain in Mrs. Martens' comforting arms, she
+had thought only of her own misery. For a time she had been just a
+little sobbing child to be consoled. All her poise, all her
+self-restraint had gone down under the force of the overwhelming shock.
+
+But now a wild hope sprang up in her breast. Why should two people
+suffer for the sake of one? And the other girl was so young--she would
+get over it.
+
+Yet, remembering Anthony's face as he had left her, she had little hope.
+
+"I wish you might have been prepared for this," he had said. "I wrote a
+letter, but it must have missed you. Perhaps it has been best to talk it
+out--that's why I came. May I still come, sometimes, Diana?"
+
+Then her pride had risen to meet the crisis.
+
+"As if anything could spoil our friendship, Anthony," she had told him
+bravely. "I want you to come--and some day you must bring--the Girl."
+
+"You will like her," he had said, eagerly, with a man's blundering
+confidence, "and you can help her. She is very lonely, Diana--and I was
+lonely----"
+
+That had been the one shred of apology which he had vouchsafed for the
+act which had spoiled their lives.
+
+When he had first entered the moonlighted room, she had turned from the
+piano and had held out her hands to him.
+
+He had taken them, and had stood looking down at her, with eyes which
+spoke what his lips would not say.
+
+And at last he had asked, "Why didn't you marry that fellow in Berlin,
+Di?"
+
+"Because I didn't love him, Anthony. I found out just in time--and I
+found out, too, just in time that--it was you--Anthony."
+
+Then he had said, "Hush," and had dropped her hands, and after a long
+time, he had spoken. "Di, I've asked another woman to marry me, and she
+has said, 'Yes.'"
+
+Out of a stunned silence she had whispered. "How--did it happen?"
+
+"Don't ask me--it is done--and it can't be undone--we have made a mess
+of things, Diana----"
+
+He gave the bare details; of the sick mother who had crept back after
+years of absence to die in her own town, of the girl and her loneliness,
+of her child-like faith in him.
+
+When he had finished, she had laid her hand on his arm. "But do you love
+her, do you really love her, Anthony?" had been her desolate demand.
+
+He had drawn back, and not meeting her eyes, had said, very low, "You
+haven't the right to ask that question, Di, or I to answer it----"
+
+And in that moment she had realized that the barrier which separated
+herself and Anthony was high enough to shut out happiness.
+
+"Oh--oh." As Diana's thoughts came back to the present, she sat up in
+bed and wept helplessly. "Oh, I don't know what I am going to do,
+Sophie. I've always been so self-sufficient, and now it seems as if my
+whole world revolves about one man----"
+
+Never before had Diana, self-contained Diana, talked to her friend of
+the things which lay deep beneath the surface, but now she revealed her
+soul to the little woman who had known love in all its fulfilment, and
+who, having lost that love, still lived.
+
+"What you must do," said Sophie, softly, "is to face it. You've got to
+look at the thing squarely, dearest-dear. It is because you and Anthony
+forgot to keep burning the sacred fires that this trouble has come upon
+you."
+
+"What do you mean, Sophie?"
+
+"When two people love each other," said Sophie, slowly, "it is a
+wonderful thing, a sacred thing, Diana. What you gave Ulric was not
+love--you were fascinated for the moment, and when you found him
+disappointing, you let him go lightly, yet all the time, deep in your
+heart, was this great Anthony--is it not so, my Diana?"
+
+"Yes," the other whispered, with her face hidden.
+
+"And Anthony, when he thought he had lost you, took this little girl to
+fill your place--and she can never fill it, and so because each of you
+has made of love a light thing, you must have your punishment. We must
+reap what we sow, Diana.
+
+"Don't think I am not sympathetic, liebchen," she went on, "but, oh,
+Diana, I'd rather see you this way than with Ulric Van Rosen as your
+lover."
+
+She knelt by the bed with her arms about her friend. Two years before
+Diana had comforted Sophie when death had claimed the great-hearted
+husband who had made the little woman's life complete. Since then they
+had clung together, and there had developed in Sophie an almost maternal
+devotion for the brilliant girl who had hitherto moved through life
+triumphant and serene.
+
+Delia, at the door, presented a worried face. "I've got some milk toast
+for Miss Diana," she explained, "and your breakfast is waiting for you,
+Miss Sophie----"
+
+"Breakfast," Diana pushed back the brown brightness of her hair and
+laughed hysterically; "is that the way the world must go on for me now,
+Sophie? You know--for you've been through it--must I eat and drink and
+be merry when my heart is--broken----?"
+
+"Hush." Again she was in Sophie's arms. "Delia will hear."
+
+But Delia's imagination had not grasped the possibility of any mental or
+spiritual disturbance. "I guess she's got one of her mother's
+headaches," she said, as she edged herself further into the room. "I
+always knew she'd have them some day--although up to now she's been
+perfectly well."
+
+"Set the tray on the table, Delia," Mrs. Martens spoke over her
+shoulder, "and I'll come down presently--and you might go up and get
+Peter. I think I shut the door as I came out----"
+
+Delia took the hint. "There's broiled fish and waffles," she complained,
+as she departed, "and they don't taste any better for waiting."
+
+"You go down, Sophie," said Diana, when they were alone--"and I'll get
+up presently, and then--I'll see some way out of it----"
+
+At her tone, her friend who had crossed the room to pull up the shades
+turned and looked at her. "What way _can_ you see, Diana?"
+
+Diana slipped out of bed and stood up, tall and white, with the long
+brown braids hanging heavily to her knees.
+
+"There must be some way," she said, "for all of us. I don't believe in
+sitting down and letting things go wrong, and they may be as wrong for
+that little girl as for Anthony and me--surely one must use common sense
+in a case like this----"
+
+Sophie pulled up the curtain, letting in a flood of sunshine.
+
+"One may use common sense," she said, "but one must be very careful----"
+
+Diana twisted her braids into a coronet, and put on a padded Japanese
+robe, for the air blew cool from the sea. Then she sat down at her desk.
+
+"I am going to ask her to come and visit me, Sophie. I want you to take
+the letter when you go down to breakfast."
+
+"To visit you--who?"
+
+"Bettina. She can stay until Anthony's big house is ready. I want to
+know his little girl."
+
+While Diana wrote her note, Sophie stepped out on the porch which
+matched her own above it. The harbor lay still and beautiful, a sapphire
+sheet in the morning calm. The anchored boats seemed to sleep like great
+white birds on its bosom.
+
+Suddenly there broke upon the stillness the sound of a great buzzing, as
+of some mammoth bee.
+
+"What is it?" asked Diana, standing in the doorway.
+
+"Look, oh, look," cried Sophie, and then they saw above them, darting
+like a dragon-fly through the golden haze, a magic ship of the air.
+
+"I wonder who's flying," said Diana, as they watched it go up and up
+until it was a mere speck against the blue. "They are daring folk, these
+flying men--yet there are men more daring. If you could see Anthony's
+hands! Those strong, competent hands that work with instruments and
+surgeon's needles, and a slip may mean some one's life--it's such men
+who are the bravest, Sophie, not the men who fly."
+
+The little woman stepped back within the circle of her friend's arm.
+Diana towered a head above her, yet spiritually she leaned on Sophie's
+fineness and faith.
+
+Their eyes followed that astounding flight, but their thoughts were with
+a man whose mornings were spent not in the golden radiance of the upper
+air, but in the bare blackness of an operating room.
+
+Suddenly Diana spoke sharply. "If I have lost him, Sophie, what shall I
+do?"
+
+"What do all women do," said Sophie, still gazing with rapt face up into
+the heavens, "what do all women do who lose the men they love? They pray
+for courage, Diana, and for strength--and then--and then they fight as
+best they can until the end--Diana."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WHITE LILACS
+
+
+"Isn't it dear of her to ask me?"
+
+"Very." Anthony took the note which Bettina handed him. In his desk were
+many letters written on the gray paper with the silver monogram.
+Subconsciously he realized that he ought to destroy them, but there was
+time enough for that.
+
+"She says she wants me to stay with her all summer; do you think I
+ought?"
+
+"She would not have asked you if she had not meant it."
+
+Bettina, with her small feet on the fender, considered the situation.
+
+"You'll have to come and see me there, and I'll miss our twilight talks
+by the fire, with Miss Matthews away, and tea, and no one to
+interrupt----"
+
+"The days are growing longer. Soon there will be no twilights and no
+fire----"
+
+"And you want me to go?"
+
+His nature was perfectly honest, and he meant that there should be no
+barriers between himself and this child-woman. So he told her the truth.
+"I don't know. But you'll be very gay. There'll be the dances at the
+yacht clubs, and you'll be entertained on the boats, and you'll meet
+lots of people. Diana knows every one, and her money and position and
+her beauty make her much in demand."
+
+"Isn't it funny she has never married?"
+
+"Funny"--sharply; "no, it's not funny. It's tragic."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because such women as Diana should marry. She has all the qualities for
+a wife and mother--she is wise and true and good, and there aren't many
+women like that in the world----"
+
+"Oh," the girl drew her breath quickly, "I'm not like that--I'm little
+and childish, and I'm not wise."
+
+He saw what he had done and tried to make amends.
+
+"You are--you, Bettina."
+
+"Well," Bettina crossed the hearth-rug, and sat down on a stool at his
+feet, "she's awfully old, isn't she?"
+
+"My dear, she's years younger than I."
+
+"Oh, you," she laughed and laid her cheek against his hand. "Your heart
+is just my age, isn't it?"
+
+He moved restlessly, then stood up, with Diana's note still in his hand.
+
+"You'd better write and tell her you'll come," he said. "I'll take you
+over to-morrow in my car."
+
+She surveyed him wistfully. "Oh, must you really go?"
+
+"Yes. There's the old man with the pneumonia, and the girl with
+appendicitis, and the new baby at the hospital--I can't neglect them,
+Bettina."
+
+"When we are married," she asked, tremulously, "will all these sick
+people keep you from me----"
+
+"A doctor belongs to his patients, my dear----"
+
+"I suppose he does," pensively, "but I shall be terribly jealous of your
+old men with the pneumonia, and your girls with appendicitis. I shall
+want you."
+
+If she had hoped to please him by her frank avowal she failed, for he
+stood looking at her with an expression which made her say hastily,
+"Don't you want me to want you?"
+
+"I was wondering if I could make you happy."
+
+She gave a little musical note of protest. "I am the happiest girl in
+the world, except--oh, if mother could only know."
+
+With a quick change of mood, she was sobbing in his arms. The masses of
+her hair lay soft against his lips, one slim white hand crept to touch
+his cheek. He imprisoned the small hand in his. "We must have a ring for
+this soon," and she shifted her head so that she could look up at him
+from under wet lashes. "Oh," she said, "shall I?"
+
+"Of course. What shall it be?"
+
+"Anything but pearls; they mean tears, you know."
+
+With a quick throb of the heart, he remembered that Diana always wore
+pearls. Was there something after all in the old superstition, and were
+the rest of Diana's days to be dreary because she had chosen the wrong
+jewels?
+
+_Diana, Diana, Diana_, would his mind never leave her?
+
+Then as if his thought had brought her, he heard her voice upon the
+stairs.
+
+"May I come up? I rang, but no one answered."
+
+"The bell is broken." He hurried out into the hall, and watched her
+ascend, with her arms full of white lilacs, her gray eyes shaded by a
+white veil thrown back from a broad hat, and around her throat the
+inevitable string of pearls.
+
+"I've come to bring some of my flowers to your little Betty child, and
+to get her answer to my note."
+
+She was smiling now, smiling at him, and at Bettina, who had come
+forward timidly.
+
+Diana laid the lilacs on the table, and drew the girl into her arms.
+"When shall it be, my dear? It seems such a perfect plan to me. The big
+house isn't finished. You can't go into it until fall, and I can help
+you get things ready. What do you think, Anthony?"
+
+"I don't know. I'll leave it to your wisdom."
+
+"Then I am sure it will be best," she responded cheerfully, "and now,
+why not to-morrow?"
+
+"I haven't anything to wear," Bettina stated, anxiously.
+
+"There's a sewing woman at the house, and Sophie and I have brought lots
+of things from Paris."
+
+"Really? And will you tell me all about your trip?"
+
+"Sophie will tell you. She's the talker. I like to listen--Anthony knows
+that."
+
+If she had meant to stab him by reviving old memories, she succeeded.
+How he had missed the responsiveness which had spurred him on to talk
+his best only his hurt heart knew. It had been her belief in him, which
+had supplemented his ability, and had brought him success, and he knew
+it and she knew it, and now Bettina was to try to play that inspiring
+part.
+
+Nothing of his thought showed, however, in his impassive countenance. He
+stood up and held out his hand.
+
+"My old man with the pneumonia is waiting," he said, "and you'll want to
+visit a bit with Bettina."
+
+"But there's one thing," he continued hurriedly "that I'd like to speak
+of before I leave--to have settled. Do you think it will be wise to make
+a public announcement of our engagement?"
+
+"Why not?" sharply.
+
+Bettina glanced from one to the other, conscious of some undercurrent of
+feeling which she did not share.
+
+"It's just this way," said Anthony, slowly; "if Bettina could meet your
+friends and mine, under your auspices, chaperoned by you, they would
+discover her charms and loveliness," he smiled at the girl, "and they'd
+then welcome her with open arms. Now she knows none of them; it would be
+only on your account that she would be received, not upon her own, and I
+think she'd like the other better Diana. What do you think, Bettina?"
+he asked. "It is for you to say."
+
+Bettina, who was making a tiny white nosegay of lilacs to pin on
+Anthony's coat, turned to them a sparkling countenance.
+
+"Me--does it matter? Does anything matter except that I am going to
+marry you, Anthony?"
+
+She held out her hands to him, laughing over her shoulder at Diana. With
+her flower face, her hair of gold, her figure slim and swaying like a
+lily on its stem, she was radiantly, almost impertinently young, and,
+with a sudden sense of age and weariness, Diana buried her face in the
+lilacs to hide a whiteness which matched their own.
+
+But she had not been quick enough to escape the keen eyes of Anthony.
+
+He dropped Bettina's hands. "I'll stop to-morrow morning, child, on my
+way to the sanatorium, and take you over."
+
+"And dine with us later," said Diana. "I'm going to have a lot of
+people. It will be a sort of impromptu housewarming. I've telephoned
+about a dozen old friends."
+
+"But I haven't anything to wear." Bettina was again in a panic.
+
+"You'll have about twelve hours to get ready," Diana comforted; "we can
+do a lot in that time."
+
+But her mind was not on clothes, for she followed the doctor out into
+the hall to say, "She's just sweet, Anthony----"
+
+"Don't," suddenly all the calm of his fine face was broken up, "don't,
+Diana----"
+
+Then Bettina came out with the little nosegay of white lilacs.
+
+"You were going away without it," she said reproachfully to the doctor,
+who was half-way down the stairway.
+
+"Throw it to me and I'll catch it," he called.
+
+But she ran after him and pinned it on and dropped a hasty kiss in the
+midst of its fragrance, and ran up again, blushing.
+
+And Diana watched the little scene from the top of the stairs and
+wondered if she had overestimated her own power to endure.
+
+The two women, standing at the window high up in the hallway, saw the
+doctor depart, then Diana said, suddenly, "Betty, dear, must you wear
+black?"
+
+The girl's lip trembled.
+
+"But--mother----"
+
+"I know. But, dearie, it wouldn't make her any happier to see you so
+somber. And there's white for you, and all the pale, pretty tints, and
+you wouldn't be too gay, nor sadden others."
+
+"But your friend, Mrs. Martens," said Bettina, eagerly; "Anthony pointed
+her out to me this afternoon--she passed here on her way to the
+post-office, and she was in deep mourning----"
+
+"Sophie's life is all behind her; yours is ahead of you."
+
+"Wouldn't it seem like--forgetting?"
+
+"You can never forget. But when you come to me there will be young
+people, and I want you to share their life. Shall we call it settled,
+and plan a white dress for to-morrow night?"
+
+Diana had a fashion of calling things settled, and of bringing others to
+her point of view. Bettina had no sense of injury, but only boundless
+confidence in the decisions of the wonderful woman creature who was to
+fill her life with gladness.
+
+"There will be twelve of us to-morrow night," she sketched rapidly.
+"Anthony and you and Sophie and I will make four, then there will be two
+comfortable married couples, and Justin Ford, who is flying his
+hydro-aeroplane over the harbor, and Bobbie Tucker, who has his yacht in
+commission, and Sara Duffield, whom you won't care for, because she is
+a bit of a snob, and Doris Sears, who is sweet and girlish and about
+your age.
+
+"Sophie and I have picked out the dress you are to wear," she continued.
+"I think you are just about Sophie's size, and there's an embroidered
+white, very sheer and fine, with a round low neck and short sleeves, and
+a girdle of amethyst, and silk stockings and satin slippers of the same
+color. I'm not sure whether the slippers will fit, but I fancy that a
+bit of cotton tucked into the toes would make them all right.
+
+"And I want you to wear your hair like I saw the girls in Paris--curled
+over your ears with a soft fringe--you'll look adorably young, Betty,
+and so dear and sweet."
+
+The girl's cheeks were brilliant with excitement. "Why, it doesn't seem
+true. Two days ago I was like Cinderella sitting in the ashes, and now
+I'm a fairy princess, and you are the fairy godmother."
+
+"Am I, my dear?" Diana spoke absently; her eyes were on a wonderful
+piece of lace, which, framed quaintly against a background of velvet,
+hung above a cabinet in the corner.
+
+"Where did you get that collar, Bettina?" she asked.
+
+"It was one of the things that belonged to father's family," the girl
+explained. "You know he was an Italian, a Venetian--and mother would
+never let me wear the collar or the old jewels. There's a queer ring.
+I'm going to give it to Anthony for a wedding ring."
+
+She spoke the last words with a charming hesitation, then went to the
+little cabinet in the corner and unlocked a drawer. Within was a carved
+box which when opened showed a massive golden circlet.
+
+"Dad wore it," said Bettina, "on his little finger, but his hands were
+fat. Anthony's fingers are slim, and he can fit it on the third finger.
+If he can't get it on the third finger, he shan't wear it."
+
+Diana stared at her in surprise. "Why not?"
+
+"Because it would remind me of Dad," said Bettina, "and I hated Dad."
+
+Here was a new phase of a nature which Diana had judged gentle and
+yielding.
+
+"But, my dear," she protested, "surely he was your father."
+
+"He broke mother's heart," said Bettina, obstinately; "he loved so many
+times, and there's only one love that is worth while, and people who
+can go from one person to another aren't worth thinking about."
+
+It was the judgment of a child ignorant of life, but so aptly did her
+condemnation fit in with Sophie's words of the night before, that Diana
+drew a sharp breath. "Perhaps he was only mistaken," she said; "perhaps
+he didn't understand until it was too late what he had lost."
+
+"He should have understood. I don't want to be harsh--he was my father,
+and I wouldn't talk this way to every one. But suppose Anthony treated
+me the way my father treated mother. Suppose he told me he loved me, and
+then--some day, I found that he cared--for some one else. What would you
+think of him then--what would you think of Anthony?"
+
+As she brought her argument to a triumphant close, Diana put up her
+white-gloved hands as if to ward off a blow, then she said, a little
+breathlessly, "Don't let Anthony wear the ring--not yet----"
+
+Bettina, unconscious of the emotion she had roused, put the ring back in
+the box.
+
+"I don't believe I shall," she said, thoughtfully; "there's an old
+superstition that a ring worn by an inconstant person carries
+inconstancy with it--and while I don't believe it--it would make me
+uncomfortable."
+
+"It would--indeed," was Diana's fervent confirmation.
+
+She was still shivering with the shock of the girlish outburst.
+
+"She loves him," she said to herself in dismay. "She really loves him."
+
+She rose and laid her hand on Bettina's shoulder. "Forget to be unhappy
+while you are with me, Betty, dear. You are going to be very gay--and,
+oh, so very, very young----" She bent and kissed her. "And now, I want
+you to do two things for me;--first, you must call me Diana--and second,
+you must believe that I am really your friend. If I ever do anything to
+make you doubt, remember this, that in my heart is just one wish, to
+help my old friend Anthony to happiness----"
+
+The girl laughed softly, her head up, her eyes shining. "You can't make
+him much happier than he is," she said; "it may sound awfully conceited,
+but I think he's happy--because he's going to marry me--Diana."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN WHICH BETTINA DANCES
+
+
+Diana's house, set high on the rocks, hung over the harbor. In the
+quaint old town, front doors became back doors, kitchens looked out on
+the street, and the windows of living-rooms and dining-rooms faced the
+sea. But there were two seasons when the rocky and ignored gardens of
+the town were ablaze with beauty--in the lilac month of the spring, and
+in the dahlia month of the fall.
+
+It was at the time of lilac bloom that Bettina came to make her
+wonderful visit to Diana, and, after an exciting day in which she had
+been swept from the hands of the dressmaker to the hands of the
+hair-dresser, thence to Sophie for inspection and to Diana for
+confirmation of the completeness of her attire, she found herself,
+arrayed in all her glory, alone in the wide hallway.
+
+The door was open at the end which faced the town, and the fragrance of
+the lilacs poured in. The soft wind swayed the branches of the bushes so
+that they seemed to float like white and purple clouds against a
+background of blue.
+
+On the step sat Peter Pan, and as Bettina came toward him he rose to
+meet her and together they went down the path.
+
+It was there in the old garden that Justin and Bobbie came upon her.
+They were in the white flannels and blue coats which Diana's informality
+permitted. The insignia on Bobbie's cap proclaimed him a yachtsman.
+
+Justin, having presented Bobbie, smiled straight into Bettina's eyes.
+
+"To think of finding you here," he said.
+
+"How is your hand?" was her practical question.
+
+"Dr. Anthony cured it. I was able to fly yesterday over the harbor. When
+are you going to fly with me?"
+
+"Never." Bettina shivered with apprehension.
+
+"Oh, but you'd like it," broke in Bobbie, eagerly. "I've been up with
+him, and it's like floating on a sea of sunshine. I give you my word the
+sensation is delightful."
+
+Justin said no more on the subject. He could wait, but some day he was
+going to fly with this little golden girl. He wondered who had been
+inspired to dress her in that white and amethyst combination. She was
+as flower-like as the lilacs themselves--she belonged to them; she was
+exquisite.
+
+He walked beside her, content to let Bobbie monopolize the conversation,
+which was unusual, for Justin liked to be the center of things. He had
+always been the center of things, and he was not diffident, as a rule,
+in his approaches toward friendship.
+
+"The funny thing about this place," Bobbie was saying, "is that you have
+to pass the kitchen door to get to the front. When I was a little boy
+Delia used to roll out cookies on that table by the window, and I'd sit
+on the step and wait for them."
+
+"Delia's a dear," said Bettina. "I fell in love with her the minute I
+came. And I fell in love with Peter."
+
+Peter, hearing his name, jumped down from the stone wall, where he had
+been watching the robins, and again joined them.
+
+"Peter and I are old friends," said Bobbie, and stopped to pet him.
+
+"So you are going to stay with Diana?" Justin asked.
+
+Bettina nodded. "Yes. Isn't she wonderful?"
+
+"Wonderful. It's a pity we aren't a monarchy, so that Diana could rule
+as a queen. She's that kind of woman. A man instinctively looks up to
+her."
+
+"That's what Anthony says."
+
+Marveling somewhat at her familiar use of the name of the distinguished
+surgeon, Justin replied, "Oh, of course, Anthony thinks she's perfect.
+He'll marry her some day."
+
+Bettina's startled glance questioned him. "What makes you say that? He
+won't, of course, but what makes you say it?"
+
+"Because it would be such a perfect arrangement. They are so well
+matched."
+
+"It wouldn't be perfect at all. People who are alike never ought to
+marry. And, anyhow, they've never thought of such a thing."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because they are not in love. Any one can see that who sees them
+together. They are just good friends--and friendship is a very different
+thing from love."
+
+Justin stared at her in amazement for a moment, then he threw back his
+head and laughed. "Oh, wise young woman," he said, "talk to me some more
+of love----"
+
+"Who's talking of love?" asked Bobbie, coming up.
+
+"Bobbie doesn't think of anything else," said Justin; "only he's never
+sure of its object. Last month it was Sara, and now it is Doris--next
+week it will be----"
+
+"Next week," said Bobbie, firmly, "it will be Doris,--and the next and
+the next--and always----"
+
+They were on the porch now--the wide porch with its rugs and low wicker
+chairs, its gay striped awning and its bowls of white and purple lilacs.
+
+Sophie was waiting for them, and Justin greeted her with all the light
+carelessness gone from his voice.
+
+"Dear lady, it is good to see you again, but hard to see this," and his
+eyes went to her black gown.
+
+Her lips were tremulous. "I know. But when I meet people who knew him,
+it does not make me sad; it makes me glad because all of his friends are
+my good friends."
+
+"There are two men whom I always place side by side as peers; one is
+Anthony Blake and the other your husband. The surgeon and the
+scientist----"
+
+"Yes," she said, "and they never met. But Diana knew him--and loved
+him."
+
+"And she loves--Anthony----"
+
+Mrs. Martens gave him a startled look. "Hush," she said. "Oh, no, you
+mustn't think that."
+
+"Perhaps she doesn't realize," he said, slowly, "but the world can see
+it with half an eye. And everybody knows Anthony's devotion."
+
+He stopped short as Diana appeared in the doorway. She wore white lace,
+with a crescent of pearls set just above the parting of her dark hair.
+
+Justin was on his feet in a moment. "Diana, the huntress," he said. "You
+shouldn't appear like that suddenly on a moonlight night unless you want
+to be worshiped as a goddess----"
+
+Diana laughed. "Please don't call me 'the huntress' again. It has a sort
+of 'woman still pursued him' sound."
+
+Justin, with Diana, was his light mocking self. With Bettina he had been
+self-conscious, with Sophie tenderly sympathetic--but Diana played up,
+as it were, to his boyish attitude of adoration.
+
+"Are we all here but Anthony?" she asked, with her eyes sweeping the
+length of the porch where the guests had gathered. "He's probably
+looking after somebody with appendicitis, or with a broken arm----"
+
+"No, he isn't." Bettina spoke with the assurance of direct knowledge.
+"This time it is a man's nose; it had to be sewed up."
+
+She shivered as she said it, and her audience roared.
+
+"I'm glad it's not Bobbie's nose," said Justin, "it's the only really
+handsome feature he possesses isn't it, Doris?"
+
+The blushing Doris murmured inarticulately. She thought Bobbie
+beautiful, and wondered why any one should designate his nose so
+explicitly.
+
+Diana regretted that she had not warned Bettina against such assumption
+of intimacy with Anthony. If people were not to know of the engagement,
+it was not well--
+
+But Anthony had come, perfectly groomed, from the tips of his white
+shoes to the top of his head, and presently he was bending over her
+hand, and saying, pleasantly, "It's a jolly lot of us you've got
+together, Di. Did I keep you waiting?"
+
+"If you had, it wouldn't be me, but Delia, to whom you'd have to
+apologize. She's the real head of the house, you know."
+
+Justin took Bettina out, Anthony took Sophie, and one of the married men
+Diana. At the table Bettina sat between the other married man and
+Justin, much to her discomfort, for she craved the seat next to the
+doctor, where perchance she might slip her fingers into his; he seemed
+so far away, and they were all strangers.
+
+But no one could be shy with Justin. "Of course we're going to be great
+friends," he said.
+
+Bettina eyed him doubtfully.
+
+"Why?" she asked.
+
+Here at least was no meek surrender to his charms, and Justin girded
+himself for the flirtation.
+
+"Well, I'm Diana's friend," he ventured.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Isn't that reason enough?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I like to choose my friends for myself."
+
+"Won't you choose me?"
+
+She smiled up at him. "Of course; don't be silly."
+
+After that they got on famously. Justin exerted himself to please, and
+Bettina, with shining eyes, laughed softly in response to his clever
+wit.
+
+Sara Duffield watched and wondered. Justin had of late seemed her
+especial property. Yet she had heard him offer to take this strange
+young woman in his aeroplane, and he had never taken Sara.
+
+"Who is she?" Sara asked of Bobbie, who was next to her.
+
+"A friend of Diana's. She has been looking after her sick mother for a
+year. Then Mrs. Dolce died, and Diana asked the girl here. She's a
+beauty, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes," said Sara, who, in certain shimmering greens and blues, looked
+like a shining little peacock, an effect which was further emphasized by
+a slender feather caught by an emerald which she wore in her black hair.
+"Where did she live before she came to Diana?"
+
+"In the top of the Lane mansion."
+
+"The Lane mansion." Sara's tone was scornful. "But it's an awful old
+place----"
+
+"I fancy they didn't have much money. But she doesn't need it, not with
+that face."
+
+"Doris had better look out," said Sara, unpleasantly.
+
+"Doris?" Bobbie's round young face grew red. "Doris is the last one,
+Sara, and there won't be any other. You and Justin can just let that
+subject alone."
+
+Sara shrugged her shoulders, and returned to her survey of Bettina. "I
+wonder where she got that stunning gown, if she's so poor. It's straight
+from Paris."
+
+"Oh, you women," Bobbie exploded, and rested his eyes on Doris, across
+the table, and the thought of her gentleness was like soothing balm in
+contrast to Sara's sharpness.
+
+After dinner Diana sang. She sat at the piano, which was placed just
+within the door of the unlighted music room, and her guests grouped
+themselves on the porch outside.
+
+She gave them, first, a little German serenade, then a gay bit of Paris
+music-hall frivolity, and finally her fingers strayed into the
+accompaniment of a song which she had written for Anthony. It was called
+"The Wind From the Sea," and it had a haunting refrain.
+
+[Illustration: Music score]
+
+Diana's thrilling voice rose and fell with the beating cadences. She had
+sung the song for Anthony on the night before she sailed for Berlin, and
+when she had finished he had made once more his insistent plea, and she
+had said, "Wait."
+
+Bettina, next to Anthony, in a corner of the porch, had had a rapturous
+moment when he had murmured, "How lovely you are to-night," and had laid
+his hand over hers in the darkness.
+
+But as Diana sang, her joy was suddenly shadowed. Why was Diana singing
+things that seemed to drag the heart out of one, and why had Anthony
+taken his hand away, and why was he so still?
+
+Even as she questioned the search-light from the little ferry that plied
+between the Head and the Neck sent a shaft of blinding radiance across
+the harbor. Bettina caught a glimpse of her lover's face, and of the
+longing look in his eyes as they rested on Diana.
+
+Why did Anthony look at Diana like that?
+
+As the insistent question obsessed her, Bettina was conscious of no
+feeling of jealousy. Her faith in Anthony made impossible any thought
+that his heart was not wholly hers. She merely coveted the look in his
+eyes as they rested on another woman.
+
+"Of course it's just the way she sings," she told herself, restlessly.
+"Why, it almost makes me cry."
+
+The music ceased abruptly, and Diana sat very still in the darkness.
+
+It was Sophie's voice which broke the silence.
+
+"Betty, dear, haven't you a song for us?"
+
+"No," came the response from the far corner. "Dad sang. I can only
+dance."
+
+"Really?" Justin was on his feet at once. "If you'll dance, we will
+light all the candles in the music room."
+
+Bettina came forward. "It's an interpretive dance. Can you play the
+'Spring Song,' Diana?"
+
+Sophie, observing anxiously, wondered what further test would try her
+friend. But she saw no sign of an emotion which had to do with a night
+when Diana had waited in the moonlight for the lover who belonged to
+another woman, as with firm touch she played the first chords of the
+rippling melody.
+
+And Bettina danced.
+
+Justin, watching her, thought of lilacs blown by light breezes, of
+clouds on a May morning, of the drift of white petals from blossoming
+trees. Was she a woman or a wraith, this slender thing swaying in the
+candle-light?
+
+Anthony watched, too, leaning back, tired, in his chair.
+
+Diana watched, and asked herself, "Can any man resist such youth and
+beauty?"
+
+And Sophie watched, and said to herself, out of the pity of her great
+and loving heart, "She is such a child--and things are going to be hard
+for her."
+
+When Bettina finished, she went straight back to Anthony. "Did you like
+it?" she demanded.
+
+But his answer was lost in the applause which forced her to face the
+rest of them, and explain:
+
+"Dad taught me. He loved beauty, and he felt that the dance was beauty
+in motion."
+
+"Sit here by me," urged Justin, in a wheedling tone, and placed a chair
+for her.
+
+Bettina yearned wistfully for her corner and Anthony, but Sara was there
+now, and her light hard laugh floated out to them.
+
+"I think I'm tired," said Bettina, as she dropped into the chair, and
+Justin, the much sought after Justin, looked at her with chagrin.
+
+"Are you tired of me?" he asked in an injured voice.
+
+She shook her head. "No--but it's been an exciting day."
+
+Somewhere back in the house the telephone rang, and presently Delia came
+out for the doctor. "You're wanted at the Neck, sir," she said; "it's
+the old gentleman with the pneumonia."
+
+As Anthony went to answer the call, the other guests said their
+farewells.
+
+Justin reproached Bettina. "You haven't been a bit good to me; if I come
+again will you talk to me?"
+
+Bettina smiled. "I'll let you talk to me."
+
+"When?"
+
+She turned to Sophie. "When shall I let him come?"
+
+"He'll see you to-morrow on Bobbie's boat," said Sophie; "he wants us
+for lunch----"
+
+"Till to-morrow, then," said Justin, and bent over her hand; then he ran
+down the porch steps to Sara, who was waiting with her head held high.
+
+When Anthony came back from the telephone Bettina said, mournfully, "Now
+you must go, and I haven't talked to you for a single minute."
+
+He looked down into the wistful face, and hesitated, then he asked,
+"Would you like to ride with me over to the Neck? It won't take long,
+but you'd have time to tell me all about your beautiful day."
+
+She was radiant at once.
+
+"Of course I can go."
+
+"Take my cloak," said Sophie; "the long black one; it's warmer, and the
+air is cool."
+
+Diana, returning from a conference with Delia, asked, "Where's Betty?"
+
+"Gone for a little ride with Anthony."
+
+"But, Sophie, what will people say--at this hour?"
+
+"I told her to wear my black cloak," said Sophie; "it's less
+conspicuous, and she was so eager."
+
+Diana stood very still in the darkness. How she coveted the intimacy of
+the little car! She had ridden so often with Anthony, and he never
+talked so well as when driving; he never revealed so fully the depth and
+fineness of his great nature. Would he reveal himself to Bettina? Would
+he? And was she shut out from his life forever?
+
+She went up-stairs slowly. "You wait for them, Sophie," she said. "I'm
+tired--it's been a hard day----"
+
+"Poor dear." Sophie stood looking up at her from the foot of the stairs.
+"I'll come up and rub your head presently."
+
+"It isn't my head," Diana answered over her shoulder.
+
+"Poor dear," said Sophie again, softly, and saw with anxious eyes the
+droop of the ascending figure in the white gown.
+
+An hour later Bettina came.
+
+"We rode across the causeway, and down the shore drive. It was beautiful
+and Anthony is going to take me again. It's been such a lovely, lovely
+day, Mrs. Martens."
+
+All the doubts of the early evening had been swept away, and Bettina was
+triumphantly happy.
+
+When they reached the second floor, she stopped outside of Diana's room.
+
+"Good-night, dear lady," she called softly, with her lips against the
+door.
+
+"Good-night," came faintly, then after a moment, "dear child."
+
+But Diana did not open the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"FOR EVERY MAN THERE IS JUST ONE WOMAN"
+
+
+When Sophie, having donned a smoke-gray kimono and brushed her shining
+hair, went down to Diana, she expected to find her pensive. She found
+her, instead, with various little white jars and silver bottles set
+before her on her dressing table.
+
+"When a woman takes to cold cream, Sophie," she remarked, as her friend
+came in, "it's a deadly sign. It shows that she has found her first
+wrinkle."
+
+"Diana, how can you! You know that you are beautiful without such aids."
+
+"When I was in Paris," Diana continued, "I was persuaded into buying
+these. I was told that they held the secret of perpetual youth."
+
+"Perpetual youth is from the heart, Diana."
+
+"Then my heart is as old as the ages."
+
+Diana was gazing into the mirror, which reflected her tired face.
+
+"I can't think of anything but that child, dancing in the candle-light.
+Oh, youth, youth, Sophie; is there anything like it in the whole wide
+world!"
+
+"Diana," Sophie's voice was sharpened by her solicitude, "come away from
+that mirror."
+
+Diana obediently turned her back on her dressing table, and presently
+she said, "I wonder if it was wise to have her here?"
+
+"Bettina?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Sophie was thoughtful. "I'm not sure. Yet it seemed to me to-night that
+perhaps--you had been wise----"
+
+"What made you think that?"
+
+"Anthony's face when you played, Diana."
+
+"Oh!" Diana crossed the room and dropped down on the rug at her friend's
+feet. "Tell me how he looked," she said, softly, with her arm outflung
+across the other's knees.
+
+"It was just in a flash that I saw his face--under the search-light from
+the ferry. It was the face of a man who had lost the one woman in the
+world for him, Diana."
+
+"If I could believe that," said Diana, tensely, "nothing else would
+matter."
+
+"Yet, believing it, how can it be right for him to marry some one else?"
+
+Diana, with her chin propped between her hands, stared with wide eyes
+into space. "It isn't right--but she loves him, Sophie."
+
+"Yet she's not the one woman--oh, what a muddle, Diana."
+
+"What a muddle," and for a time they sat in silence.
+
+Then Sophie said, "Perhaps it's because I was so happy in my
+marriage--that I can see so clearly. I've worked it out this way,
+dearest, dear--that in all the world there's just one woman for one man.
+If he meets and marries her, no matter how hard their life may be, they
+will be drawn together, not separated, by the hardness; no matter how
+the world may use them, they will cling together against the world. But
+when a man marries the wrong woman, he goes through life a half-man,
+crippled in mind and spirit, because of his mistake. Sometimes the man
+finds the one woman in a second marriage; sometimes he finds her too
+late; sometimes he is too blind to know that she is the one woman, and
+he lets her go, to discover afterward that no other can fill his life.
+That's the pity of it. If Anthony marries Bettina, she will know some
+day--that she is--the wrong woman----"
+
+Diana rose and moved restlessly about the room. "But she's so slim and
+white and young--and no man can resist that sort of thing long. She has
+youth to give him, Sophie, and I, why, soon I'll be middle-aged."
+
+"You--oh, Diana----"
+
+Diana's laugh had a sob in it. "Well, I shall be."
+
+"You'll never be anything but lovely--when you're an old lady you'll be
+stately and distinguished, and your eyes will shine like stars, and men
+will still fall in love with you----"
+
+"Oh, Sophie, you're such a comfort----"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning Delia sent up three breakfasts on trays.
+
+"If it wasn't for that pretty child," she said to little Jane Trefry,
+who helped her in the kitchen, "there wouldn't be any satisfaction in
+getting things ready. Miss Sophie has learned foreign ways and wants
+rolls and coffee, and Miss Diana wants grape fruit. I don't know what's
+the matter with her appetite; she hasn't eaten enough for a bird since
+she came, and yet that first night she said to me, 'Oh, Delia, I'm just
+dying for some of your good New England cooking!'"
+
+"Maybe she's in love," said little Jane, who was romantic.
+
+Delia turned her omelette deftly. "Of course she is. Everybody knows she
+just about worships Dr. Blake, only she won't marry him till she gets
+good and ready. That's the house he's building for her--up the road,
+with the red-tiled roof and the wide stone porches. He had the window of
+her room toward Minot's, so that the light could say, 'I love you' to
+her at night."
+
+"She'd better look out," stated little Jane, with provincial frankness;
+"if she waits too long he'll be finding some one else to say 'I love
+you' to."
+
+"You keep your mind on that toast," Delia was dishing up the omelette,
+"and don't you forget that Miss Diana isn't the kind that a man goes
+back on. She could have had a dozen richer men than the doctor. But she
+didn't want them, and maybe she doesn't want him, but don't you get it
+into your head that he wants anybody else."
+
+Little Jane sniffed. "You can't tell about men," she said, as she went
+out of the door with Bettina's tray.
+
+Bettina, sitting up in bed, welcomed little Jane with enthusiasm. She
+ate everything from strawberries to omelette with a hearty appetite,
+then she lay comfortably, looking out toward the eastern horizon where
+the smoky streak of a steamer showed faintly.
+
+Presently Sophie came in with a gown of white serge--of simple lines,
+with wide collar and cuffs of sheer embroidered muslin. "Diana insisted
+that I should get some white things in Paris," she said, as she laid it
+over a chair. "She hoped that I might be induced to dress in something
+besides black, but I can't, and so I am sure that you will be willing to
+wear these out for me, my dear."
+
+Bettina put one bare foot on the floor, then the other, then she
+fluttered across the room like a white butterfly and embraced Mrs.
+Martens.
+
+"It's lovely, only it doesn't seem quite right for me to take
+everything."
+
+"It is right. They would lie in my trunks until they were out of
+fashion. There's a white felt hat that goes with this, and a long white
+coat, and Diana is going to take you over to town this morning to get
+white shoes and gloves and a veil."
+
+"I thought we were to lunch on Bobbie Tucker's yacht."
+
+"We were--but Bobbie has just telephoned that his yacht has to go to the
+yard for repairs--something happened last night--so Justin will take us
+for a ride."
+
+"Oh," said Bettina. "Mr. Ford?"
+
+"Yes. Justin has put his car at our disposal. He'll drive us to-day, but
+when he can't there's the chauffeur--it's very kind of him."
+
+"He's awfully good looking," said Bettina in a cool little voice, "but
+don't you think he's terribly conceited, Mrs. Martens?"
+
+Sophie nodded. "He's been spoiled. But back of it all he's a man. His
+lightness is on the surface. I know, for he was in Berlin when my
+husband was living. I saw the other side then. He was poor; it was
+before he came so unexpectedly into his uncle's money. You know the old
+man and his son were drowned in a dreadful accident. Justin was studying
+aviation when we first knew him. He lived in shabby rooms, and ate at
+shabby little places, and he used to come in the afternoons to call on
+me, and I'd fill him up with thick bread and butter and coffee, and we'd
+talk for hours of America. He was lonely poor lad, and I was like a big
+sister. I shall never forget one bitter cold afternoon, when he came in
+with his hands all red and rough, and with a hoarse cough, and I had the
+maid bring him a bowl of soup hot from the kitchen, and he tried to make
+a joke of it, but his voice broke, and presently he said, 'Dear big
+sister, some day I can thank you, but not now.'
+
+"And when my husband died," she went on, softly, "he did thank me in a
+most generous way. He had just received his fortune when he heard of
+my--trouble. He sent a wonderful cross to mark where my husband
+sleeps--and I could have afforded only a little stone--and there are
+flowers every week, even when I am far away, and there will always be
+flowers because of his great generosity."
+
+Here was a background for the light-hearted young Justin which appealed
+to Bettina's imagination. "Why, how lovely," she said with her eyes
+shining; "he didn't seem like that to me. He seemed so--shallow."
+
+"But he isn't," Sophie defended; "if it had not been for him and for
+Diana I should have lost heart many times--the world knows Justin as a
+rich young man, ready for a good time, but I know him as the Knight of
+the Tender Heart."
+
+"How old is he?"
+
+"Twenty-six. I didn't realize until I reached here that he was flying
+again. He does such dangerous things. I saw the aeroplane yesterday
+morning, and found out afterward that he was up--and since then my heart
+seems to stop every time I think of him in the air----"
+
+With all the optimism of youth, Bettina tried to reassure her.
+
+"He said last night that he was very careful. He wants to take me up."
+
+"Oh, don't ever do anything so dreadful."
+
+"I couldn't if I wanted to. Anthony made me promise last night that I
+wouldn't----"
+
+She said it with a comfortable sense of her lover's care for her; "I'd
+rather ride any day with Anthony in his little car."
+
+"My dear," Sophie said with some hesitation, "I'm going to suggest that
+except to Diana and myself, you try not to seem too much interested
+in--your doctor--the world might suspect--and you don't want to announce
+your engagement yet, Diana tells me----"
+
+Bettina shrugged her white shoulders. "I don't care if everybody knows,"
+she said; "but Diana thought that Anthony's friends might like to get
+acquainted with me first. But if you could know what he's been to me,
+Mrs. Martens--why, when I waked this morning it seemed like a dream to
+think that I wasn't in the top floor of the old Lane house, with Miss
+Matthews making her breakfast coffee over an alcohol stove, and a little
+impatient because I hadn't the toast ready, and with the prospect ahead
+of me of another lonely day, when I should try to read and try not to
+think, and miss mother until I nearly died.
+
+"Do you wonder that I love him?" She came up to Mrs. Martens and put her
+hands on her shoulders. "He's so wonderful and good--and he loves
+me----"
+
+Sophie could not meet the frank young eyes. "It's nice that you feel
+that way," she said, "and I hope you don't mind what I said--it was only
+that it might save you some future--embarrassment."
+
+"I'll be careful," said Bettina, "only I'm perfectly sure that everybody
+will know every time I look at Anthony that he's the one man in the
+world for me. You can't imagine how uninteresting other men seem beside
+him--and then his manner, isn't it lovely and protecting and--sure?"
+
+Sophie had a sudden sense of the comedy which was intermingled with the
+tragic of the situation. Diana and Bettina each harped incessantly on
+one string, "Anthony, Anthony, Anthony," and she must play listener to
+their ecstatic songs of praise.
+
+During the trip to town, Bettina sat beside Justin.
+
+"Since Bobbie's yacht is out of commission," suggested Justin, "why not
+extend our ride up the North Shore road? There's a war-ship anchored
+just off Beverly, and a tea room where we can have lunch."
+
+"I must stop at the sanatorium first," said Diana. "Anthony has a
+patient there who is to be operated on. She's a little young thing, and
+she's afraid, and I want to take her some lilacs. I told Jane to pick
+some and have them ready when we returned, so perhaps you'd better go
+first to our house, and then to the sanatorium, then we can do as we
+please----"
+
+"A sanatorium," said Justin to Bettina, "always used to suggest vague
+horrors. But Dr. Anthony's doesn't. He has a wonderful way with his
+patients, puts their hands to work, because it's their minds that make
+them sick; they weave and make pottery. The last time I was there an
+anxious-eyed, beautifully-gowned woman was working on a rug, with three
+rabbits as a design. She was having trouble with the bunnies' ears when
+Dr. Blake came up.
+
+"'I simply can't do it, doctor,' she said, and began to cry.
+
+"Anthony stood very still for a moment, then in his quiet, strong voice,
+he said, 'Dear lady, it must be done--for your soul's sake.'
+
+"She looked up at him in a startled way. 'Why my soul?' she asked. 'It's
+my body that's sick.'
+
+"He shook his head. 'It's deeper than that,' he answered; 'you've lost
+your grip because life has never meant labor to you. The people who work
+have healthy minds and healthy bodies. Those who do not, waver between
+weakness and wickedness. That's what's the matter with society
+to-day--that's what's the matter with you. You must finish your bunnies'
+ears, therefore, for the sake of your soul--your body will respond----'
+
+"She went back to her loom," Justin continued, "with a different look on
+her face. The lines were smoothed out from her forehead. Neither of them
+had seemed to notice that I was there. It was a psychological moment
+when the doctor had to speak, and it was wonderful to hear him talk like
+that."
+
+Bettina's puzzled eyes met his. "Oh, but do you think that people have
+to work to be happy?" she said. "I hate work. I like to be warm and
+comfortable, and have pretty clothes, and--everything."
+
+"Of course you do," said Justin, responding to her mood, lightly, "but
+you don't want to get Dr. Blake after you--he preaches a gospel of
+endeavor."
+
+"Oh!" There was a note of dismay in Bettina's voice. "But not all of us
+can be bees. Some of us must be the butterflies."
+
+Justin spoke, somewhat seriously: "I've been a butterfly for three
+years, and I give you my word I'm not getting much out of it. Seeing
+Mrs. Martens has brought back the days when I worked over there in
+Germany to get the money to finish my studies. Has she told you how I
+used to go to her and drink her delicious coffee and eat thick bread and
+butter, and bask in her sympathy until I got the courage to go on again?
+Yet I felt all the time that I was getting somewhere, and here I'm
+stagnating----"
+
+Bettina settled herself back comfortably in her cushioned seat. "Well, I
+don't think it's anything to worry about. It seems perfectly wonderful
+to me not to have anything to do--if I had mother back," her voice
+trembled, "I wouldn't care how much I had to work for her--but after
+she--left me, everything seemed so--so sordid, and hard--and----Oh, I
+hated it--and then----" She drew herself up sharply.
+
+"Then----?" Justin prompted her.
+
+"Diana came," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "and now
+everything will be different."
+
+Justin had a baffled sense of some mystery from the solution of which he
+was shut out, but he merely said, heartily, "I hope you'll stay
+forever," and felt his heart leap as the ends of her white veil
+fluttered against his lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HARBOR LIGHT
+
+
+Anthony's sanatorium was an enlargement of an old mansion which had
+belonged to his grandfather. The wide green lawns swept down to the sea.
+There was an orchard to the left of the house, and to the right a rose
+garden, and the barn had been turned into a weaving room.
+
+Within the house everything was restful and harmonious. Money had been
+spent without stint to produce beauty in its most subtle expression;
+each window framed a view of sea or sky or of sunlighted trees; the
+walls, the hangings, the rugs were of that ashes-of-rose tint which give
+light to an interior without glare.
+
+Diana, entering, with her arms full of lilacs, was met by a nurse.
+
+"Dr. Blake wants you at once," she said; "he's in his office."
+
+"Take these, Betty." Diana thrust the lilacs into the girl's arms.
+"Perhaps you'd better go back and sit in the car with Justin and
+Sophie, or you can wait in the reception room. I won't be long."
+
+But she was longer than she had anticipated. The seconds lengthened into
+minutes, and the minutes in quarters and into half hours. Justin came in
+once and found Bettina sitting stiffly on the edge of a chair with the
+flowers in her arms.
+
+"Come out and we'll take a spin across the causeway, while we wait," he
+said.
+
+Bettina shook her head. "Diana said she wouldn't be long. I don't see
+what's keeping her."
+
+"There's that operation this morning, you know, on the girl with
+appendicitis. And Diana has always been a great help with Anthony's
+patients. He told me that when she went to Europe her loss was felt
+deeply here----"
+
+"But the girl--with appendicitis?" Bettina's face was white. "Is she
+afraid----?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, I should be afraid. I--I don't see how Anthony can do it."
+
+"Do what?"
+
+"Operate on such a little scared thing----" She was shivering.
+
+"You mustn't stay here," Justin insisted; "you'll get nervous, you
+know, and all that; you really mustn't stay--you weren't made to have
+your mind on such things."
+
+"But Diana's mind is on them."
+
+"Diana is--different."
+
+That Diana was different was being demonstrated at that very moment in
+an upper room, where a little white slip of a girl had welcomed her with
+a wailing cry--"I'm afraid."
+
+"My dear," Diana bent over the bed, "there's nothing to be afraid of,
+not with your doctor."
+
+"But--if I should die."
+
+"You're not going to die."
+
+"But how do you know?"
+
+"Because your good doctor has said so--and he knows----"
+
+"But sometimes people do--die."
+
+Diana signed to the nurse to go out, and then she knelt by the bed.
+
+"Dear child," she said, softly, "life is such a short journey for all of
+us, and beyond is a wonder land. When I was a little girl I used to wish
+that I might die, and I thought that my lonely little soul might sail
+and sail in a silver boat until I came to the shores of that far country
+where I should find my father and mother waiting. I was such a dreary
+little orphan, and I wanted love. And I knew that in that country Love
+waited for me--as it is waiting for you. Would it be so hard to go after
+all the pain, if Love willed it so?"
+
+"I hadn't thought of it that way."
+
+"Then think of it now. But most of all think of life, and of what it
+will mean to you when wise Dr. Blake has made you well. And think of
+this, too, that when you wake up from your long sleep there will be a
+bunch of white lilacs right here on this little table--to welcome you
+back to the world--will you promise to think of the white lilacs until
+you go to sleep?"
+
+She was talking against time, trying to get the tense look out of the
+girl's eyes. And now she was rewarded by the lowered lids and the
+relaxing of the little figure in her arms.
+
+"I am going to think of the lilacs," the girl whispered. "Are you very
+sure they will be there?"
+
+"Very sure, dear."
+
+"Then I'm ready----"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Diana, going out, met Anthony.
+
+"She's all right," she said. "I'm glad you had me come.
+
+"She confided in me at once. She just needed her mind diverted, and I
+turned it on white lilacs. I will have a bunch for her when she wakes,
+and she is going to think of them. Is there really any danger, Anthony?"
+
+"Scarcely any--and there was no choice. She couldn't live without it."
+
+"How wonderful that you can save life, Anthony."
+
+"In saving others I save myself, Diana. It has kept me in these later
+years from--chaos----"
+
+Something in his voice made Diana say, quickly, "Betty is down-stairs.
+Poor child, she has waited for a long time. Can you come down?"
+
+"No. She ought not to be here, Diana."
+
+"She would come. I think she hoped to see you. And why shouldn't she
+come? Your work is here."
+
+"She isn't fitted for it. She is born for the brightness of life, not
+for its shadows. I fancy if she could see me in my operating outfit that
+she'd look upon me as something between a brute and a butcher. Poor
+child!" His laugh was grim.
+
+Diana's progress down the corridor partook of the nature of an ovation.
+From one room to another she went, and was welcomed by patients, many of
+whom made periodical visits to "Harbor Light"--which was the
+picturesque name Anthony had given his house because, as he explained,
+it was to be a beacon to such derelicts as drifted there. There were men
+and women of wealth who came to be fortified for another season of
+excitement, and there were men and women to whom the doctor gave lodging
+and his skill without financial recompense. But no one knew to whom such
+charity was extended, and all were equal in care and treatment.
+
+Most of the nurses, too, had been there long enough to know the
+inspiration and uplift which was brought by the gracious lady in the
+white gown.
+
+When the patients asked, "Who is she?" the reply was whispered, "Diana
+Gregory. Everybody hopes she'll marry the doctor. He's dead in love with
+her."
+
+At last Diana slipped away, promising to come again soon to look at the
+weaving, to see the new pottery--
+
+"But not now," she insisted, brightly; "there's some one waiting for me
+down-stairs."
+
+She found Bettina still sitting stiffly on the edge of the chair. She
+had sent Justin back to Sophie, and a nurse had taken away the lilacs.
+All the glory had gone out of her morning when Anthony had asked for
+Diana.
+
+"Why didn't he want me?" she demanded, when Diana came toward her with
+an eager apology. "Why didn't Anthony want me?"
+
+"My dear, he always wants you, but there's an operation on now."
+
+"On that girl with appendicitis?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, how can he do it, Diana? I think it's dreadful--to--to hurt
+people----"
+
+"He doesn't hurt them, dear."
+
+"But it's horrid. I--I hate it."
+
+"Betty!"
+
+"I--I shan't ever let him talk about it to me." The child's breath was
+coming quickly. "Never--never--never, when we are married--and I'm going
+to make him give it up----"
+
+"Give it up?" Diana's voice rang clear and sharp. "Give what up?"
+
+"His surgery. I didn't mind the other--when he came to mother and gave
+her medicine in bottles--but this is different, and the women
+here----Why, Diana, some of them looked in at the door, and they
+were--freaks."
+
+"They're sick, dear."
+
+"I don't like sick things. I loved mother, and I could stand it, but
+Anthony mustn't let me see such people--not now, so soon after----!"
+
+"Hush, Betty! Oh, you shouldn't have come in. We'll go now and have a
+long ride with Justin, and to-night you'll see Anthony--and some day
+you'll realize what a great man he is."
+
+"I know he's a great surgeon, and, of course, I'll have to put up with
+it--but I shall hate it just the same, Diana."
+
+Put up with it--oh, Diana! For years she had urged him toward this end,
+that he might stand at the head of that profession which combats death
+with a flaming sword. For years she had watched him struggle upward, and
+had gloried, not only in his fame, but in his power of healing.
+
+Together the two women went down the path.
+
+"Are you tired of waiting?" Diana asked as they came up to the car.
+
+"Justin took me for a little ride," said Sophie, "and I sat in front
+with him. We tried to get Bettina to go, but she wouldn't. She thought
+she ought to wait for you."
+
+"I wish I hadn't waited," said Bettina, as Justin helped her in. "I--I
+don't like sick people, and I hate that queer smell----"
+
+"Ether," said Justin, promptly; "it's because of the operation."
+
+He leaned forward, and the car shot out toward the causeway. The way led
+first through a street overarched with elms; beyond the elms there was a
+vista of sea and sky. A fragrant wind blew from the blossoming trees,
+and swept Bettina's veil away from her face so that it billowed above
+her hat like the wings of some great bird.
+
+The hospital was behind; ahead was the long white road. Justin was
+smiling down into her eyes. For the first time she noticed his look of
+joyous youth.
+
+"I begin to understand why it is that you fly," she said, as they came
+out upon the causeway and saw the stretch of harbor beyond.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because you feel that you must get up high enough to flap your wings."
+
+"I could do that on a barn-yard fence, couldn't I--like Chantecler, and
+make the sun rise?"
+
+"You could never get up early enough."
+
+"I flew past your window at six."
+
+"How did you know it was my window?"
+
+Justin glanced down at her. Her soft white hat was pulled low, so that
+it almost hid her eyes, but through the veil he could see that they were
+softly shining. Her lips were red, and her cheeks touched by the wind
+with vivid color.
+
+"I knew--because my heart told me," he said, ardently.
+
+But she did not blush. "You knew it because you know which is Diana's
+guest room," she stated.
+
+"Were you awake?"
+
+"No. I am never awake at six--I love to be lazy."
+
+"Don't tell that to Dr. Anthony or he'll set you to weaving. You know
+what I told you; he said that idleness leads to weakness or
+wickedness----"
+
+"I haven't had time to see what it leads to," Bettina informed him.
+"I've always been so busy. I'm going to play for a while."
+
+"Will you play with me?" Justin challenged her.
+
+Shining eyes met shining eyes--youth responded to youth.
+
+"It will be glorious," said Bettina, meeting his mood.
+
+They laughed together, the care-free laughter of their golden age.
+Diana, catching the echo of it, waked from a reverie which had to do
+with Anthony back there in a big, bare room, contending with skilful and
+steady hands against the evil forces which sought to destroy; saving a
+life, giving to a little unknown girl a future of hope and of health.
+
+Every breath that she had drawn since she had left him had been a prayer
+that his hand might not fail, that his nerves might be like steel--she
+felt as if her heart were beating with his to uphold him, as if she
+could bear him on the wings of love and be his talisman against harm.
+
+Yet in front of her was the girl he was to marry, laughing lightly up
+into the eyes of a boy, unconscious of her lover's need, unconscious of
+everything except that she was young and free from care--and that the
+morning world was beautiful!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE EMPTY HOUSE
+
+
+When the doctor came that night he was tired. The day had been a hard
+one, and he felt weighed down by the woes of those weak folk who bore so
+heavily on his strength.
+
+He found Bettina alone. Diana and Sophie had gone to play bridge across
+the harbor, and only Delia in the garden and Peter Pan on the porch
+remained for chaperonage.
+
+Bettina greeted her betrothed soberly, and held up her face to be
+kissed. "I said things about you yesterday," she confessed, as she and
+Anthony settled themselves on the porch where they could look out upon
+the lights. "I said things about you to Diana, and afterward we went to
+the Pirate House with Justin Ford for lunch, and I flirted with him----"
+
+"What did you say about me?"
+
+"That I hated your surgery--that it seemed dreadful."
+
+He had been smiling, but he grew grave at once.
+
+"You can't separate me from my work, child; you must take us together."
+
+"Of course; I know that now. Diana was talking to me after we came home
+from our ride. She told me some of the wonderful things you had done,
+and of how people almost said their prayers to you."
+
+"Not quite that--but it's my reward that so many of my patients are my
+friends because I have helped them."
+
+"And Diana said that if I loved you I'd be glad--to let you--cut people
+up."
+
+In spite of himself he laughed. She was irresistible.
+
+"I shan't exact that of you. But at least you must not worry."
+
+"And I won't have to live there?" anxiously.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At the sanatorium?"
+
+"Of course not. You'll live over there."
+
+He pointed to a jutting rock on the top of which a big house loomed
+white in the moonlight.
+
+"There? Oh, I'd love to go over it. Couldn't we, now?"
+
+He hesitated. "Perhaps it would be better to wait till there are
+others." Then, seeing her disappointment, he agreed. "Well, if Delia
+will come too."
+
+"Delia?"
+
+"To open the rooms." He had not the heart to tell her how sharp were the
+tongues of the gossips of the little town.
+
+So Delia, a little later, limped after them with Peter following,
+confidently.
+
+"And you flirted with Justin," Anthony remarked on the way over.
+
+"Yes. In the little tea room. Diana and Mrs. Martens sat at one table,
+and Mr. Ford and I at the other--and he was so funny--and I----Well,
+_any one_ looking on might have thought I was in earnest."
+
+"What did Diana think?"
+
+"Oh, she knows how I feel about you----"
+
+"And Justin, does he know?"
+
+"Of course not. It's not announced, you know."
+
+"But if he should take you in earnest."
+
+"Silly," Bettina tucked her hand in his arm, "nobody takes me in
+earnest--but you----"
+
+Her hesitation was charming, but he did not respond ardently, and
+perhaps she missed something in his manner, for presently she asked,
+"Are you jealous?"
+
+"My dear, no. Children must play----"
+
+She sighed a little. "Am I such a child?"
+
+He laughed again. "Of course, you're a mere baby--but a dear baby, Betty
+mine."
+
+And with that she was content.
+
+The big house was not furnished.
+
+"I am going to put in the things which were in the old house before I
+turned it into a sanatorium. My grandfather was a sea captain, and I
+have a model of a ship carved by one of his sailors out of soup bones,
+and there are two great china tureens in the shape of swans, and some
+ivories and queer embroidered screens that I wouldn't take anything for.
+It's a sort of jumble for a modern residence, but I like it. And I have
+had the house built in a style which will be in keeping with my
+belongings. It's rocky and rugged and there's a fireplace in every room.
+I like to burn logs for cheerfulness even when there's a furnace--and to
+come home to the light of them on winter nights."
+
+"I love pretty new things," Bettina informed him. "May I have all white
+for my room? With ivory things on my dresser with silver monograms,
+and--white fur rugs?"
+
+Her room!
+
+It came to Anthony, with the force of a blow, that there was no room in
+the big house for Bettina.
+
+Why, that room was Diana's--that room which looked out on Minot's. He
+had thought of her as inhabiting it. He had never meant that the great
+light should say, "I love you," to Bettina.
+
+For months, even when he felt that he had lost Diana, her spirit had
+seemed to dwell in the place he had planned for her. Whenever he had
+entered her room it had not seemed bare, for his imagination had filled
+it with the furniture which had been his grandmother's wedding set--the
+big canopied bed, the winged chair on the hearth, the quaint lyre-legged
+sewing table by the window. And on the other side of the hearth would be
+another chair--his own. And in that room he had seen Diana, his bride,
+in the moonlight; his wife, waiting in the winged chair to welcome him
+after a weary day.
+
+And now this pretty child--and Diana banished? What had he done? What
+dreadful thing had he done?
+
+Bettina, unconscious, said pleasant things about the living-room, the
+library, the great hall, the broad stairway--
+
+As yet there was no connection for lighting, so they carried candles,
+Anthony holding one aloft for himself and Bettina, and Delia coming
+after with a taper. Peter, like a flash of flame, slipped ahead of
+Delia and was lost in the shadows.
+
+They went into every room on the second floor before they entered the
+one which faced Minot's. To him it was the Holy of Holies, but Bettina
+stepped in boldly.
+
+It was a great high-ceiled chamber with its distant corners made darker
+by the moonlight. Through the wide window which faced the south was a
+vast expanse of sky and sea. Anthony's house stood near the end of the
+harbor, so that across the causeway was the open water, a stretch of
+limitless blue.
+
+Bettina shivered. "It's so big and dark."
+
+"When it's furnished and the lights are on it will seem different."
+
+Delia, arriving at that moment, added her contribution to the
+conversation.
+
+"Miss Diana came over yesterday. Them's her white lilacs on the shelf."
+
+The doctor held his candle higher. The flowers, in a great bowl of gray
+pottery, showed ghostly outlines beneath the flickering flame. To
+Anthony the air seemed thick and faint with their perfume.
+
+"Let us go," he said to Bettina, quickly, and with his hand on her arm
+he led her away and shut the door.
+
+Diana and Sophie, coming home at half-past ten, found the lovers on the
+porch, and the four talked together until Anthony said "Good-bye."
+
+He made a professional call in a side street and found himself,
+afterward, turning toward the big empty house on the rocks. In that
+south room Diana's lilacs were wasting their sweetness, and he coveted
+the subtle suggestion they gave of her presence there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Diana, helping Delia to lock up, asked, "Where's Peter?"
+
+"Goodness knows," said Delia; "he followed me when we went over to the
+doctor's house, and I ain't seen him since."
+
+Diana turned and looked at her. "The doctor's house? Who went?"
+
+"Dr. Anthony and Miss Betty and me. They asked me. She hadn't ever seen
+it, and he wanted to show it to her."
+
+Diana felt her heart stand still.
+
+"Did you go--into every room, Delia?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+So he had taken little Betty there. They had entered that room to which,
+that very morning, she had carried white lilacs, moved by some impulse
+to call it her own until some one else should have the right to claim
+it.
+
+"I'll look up Peter," she told Delia, hastily. "You needn't wait for
+me."
+
+The town clock struck half-past eleven as she went through the
+garden--wraith-like in her long white wrap.
+
+"Peter," she called softly, "Peter, Peter."
+
+Following the path over the rocks, she came at last to the empty house.
+
+A faint mew sounded from within. She turned the knob, and found the door
+unlocked. "Peter," she called again, and the big cat came forth, his
+tail waving like a plume.
+
+Diana, facing the darkness of the great hall, felt impelled to enter, to
+slip silently up the stairs, to stand on the threshold of the
+moonlighted chamber, whence came the perfume of white lilacs.
+
+And as she stood there, she saw, with a sudden leap of the heart, that
+Anthony was before her. Silhouetted against the wide space of the open
+window he was looking out at the flashing light.
+
+She put her hand to her throat. She stepped back as if to escape. Then,
+swayed by an impulse which cast prudence to the winds, she spoke his
+name.
+
+"Anthony!"
+
+"Diana!"
+
+He had turned from the window, and was peering through the dimness. He
+came toward her. She held out her hands to keep him back.
+
+"Oh, please--no--no----"
+
+But he took her in his arms.
+
+When he let her go his face was white.
+
+"There is no excuse for me," he said. "I know that. I've given my word
+of honor to that little child--who trusts me. Yet--this room belongs to
+you. Before you came to-night I touched the lilacs with my lips, and it
+seemed to me as if they were your lips--that I touched. And when I
+turned and saw you--white--like a bride--on the threshold--it was as I
+had seen you, night after night--in my dreams. You belong here and no
+other, Diana!"
+
+What she said in reply Diana could never remember with any great
+distinctness. She only knew that she was trying to hold on as best she
+could to the best that was within her. Anthony in this moment of
+weakness was hers. Whatever she did now would bring him to her or send
+him away--perhaps forever. She struggled to think clearly--to raise
+some barrier between his awakened passion and her own wild desire to
+take what the gods had placed within easy reach of her hand.
+
+Suddenly she found herself speaking. Her throat was dry and she was
+shaking from head to foot. But she was telling him that she had tried to
+use common sense. That she had asked Bettina to come to her hoping that
+there might be found some way out. But there _wasn't_ any way out, not
+any honorable way. And she didn't dare play Fate any longer. Not after
+to-night. Not after--_to-night_.
+
+Her voice broke.
+
+"Diana--dear girl----"
+
+He put both of his strong hands on her shoulders, and so they faced each
+other in the illumined night.
+
+"For just one little moment," he said, "we will have the truth. If I had
+not asked Betty you would have married me, Diana?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"If there is any honorable way in which I can release myself, will you
+marry me now?"
+
+She had a sudden vision of the slender, lonely child in shabby black as
+she had first seen her in the shadowy room.
+
+"No, oh, _no_," she whispered.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because there isn't any honorable way; because I should feel little and
+mean; because it would make me think less--of you, Anthony."
+
+Her eyes met his steadily. She was as pale as the spectral lilacs, whose
+perfume floated about them. But her nervous fears were gone. She knew
+now that they would triumph--she and Anthony--that they were not to
+leave the heights.
+
+When at last he spoke, it was in a moved voice. "If you were less than
+you are I should not love you so much. You know that, Diana?"
+
+"Yes, I know----"
+
+"In the years to come, what you have been to me will be my light--in the
+darkness----"
+
+Unable to speak, she held out her hands to him. He took them, and bent
+his head.
+
+With a little murmured cry she released herself, and flitted away into
+the engulfing darkness. The echoes of her swift descent came whispering
+up the stairs; in the distance a door was shut. The emptiness of the
+unfinished house seemed symbolic of the future which stretched before
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE GOLDEN AGE
+
+
+Justin Ford had not been unsuccessful with women. Many of them had liked
+him, and might have loved him if he had cared to make them, but until he
+met Bettina Dolce he had not cared.
+
+There was about Bettina, however, a certain remoteness which puzzled
+him. She responded to his advances with girlish gayety, but her cool
+sweet glance held no hint of self-consciousness, and beyond a certain
+point of light flirtation he had, as yet, dared not go.
+
+He pondered these things one morning as he worked on his delicate
+machine in the great shed with its wide opening toward the water.
+
+Why had little Bettina erected a barrier? She knew nothing of the arts
+of sophisticated coquetry, so he absolved her from any intention to
+rouse his interest. Was she unawakened? Was there another man?
+
+He laid down his pipe to think out that last startling proposition.
+There had been no men in her secluded life.
+
+Except Anthony Blake! Gracious Peter, could it be Anthony? There came to
+Justin, suddenly, a vision of Bettina in the shadowy room. Of her
+childish dependence upon the doctor, of her little claims of intimacy,
+her evident preference for the older man's society, her vehement denial
+the night of the dinner that there could be anything but friendship
+between Anthony and Diana.
+
+Putting, thus, two and two together, he decided that Bettina believed
+herself in love with Anthony. Yes, that was it--and Anthony--well, for
+Anthony there was just Diana!
+
+There you had it, and the only way to save Bettina and, incidentally,
+himself from heartbreak was to take things into his own hands, and play
+Prince to this exquisite Cinderella.
+
+Unconsciously his mind assumed a sort of King Cophetua attitude toward
+the charming Beggar Maid. He found himself humming:
+
+    "In robe and crown the king stept down,
+     To meet and greet her on her way----"
+
+Justin knocked the ashes out of his pipe and put it in his pocket.
+There was no time like the present, and he at once went toward Diana's,
+"clothed all in leather," like the old man in the nursery rhyme.
+
+He found Bettina in the garden. She wore a strong little suit of blue
+serge with a crimson silk scarf knotted under her sailor collar. On her
+fair head was a shady hat. She stood by the stone wall looking
+expectantly down the road. But it was not Justin whom she expected,
+although she smiled at him, and gave him her hand.
+
+"Did you meet Miss Matthews?" she inquired.
+
+"Miss Matthews?"
+
+"You know. You met her the first time you saw me."
+
+"I can only remember that time that I met--you."
+
+She laughed. "How nicely you say it."
+
+"But you do not take me seriously."
+
+"Does anybody take you seriously?"
+
+"Kind people do."
+
+"And I'm not kind?"
+
+"Not to me--you just give me remnants and fragments of your time. I have
+hardly seen you for three days."
+
+"Nobody has seen me," she informed him. "I've been doing all sorts of
+stunts in the shops. I was in town yesterday with Mrs. Martens, and you
+should see my hats----"
+
+"I'd rather see your hair. Do you know how lovely it is with the
+sunshine on it----"
+
+"Silly--wait till you see my dream of a picture hat--with yellow
+roses--to be worn with a shadow lace robe over a primrose slip."
+
+"White and gold--Sophie was foxy to choose that," he said.
+
+"Foxy--why?"
+
+"Oh, the pinks and blues don't suit you. You need the unusual tints.
+That amethyst frock you had on the other night fitted in with the
+twilight, and the old garden and the lilacs; and in the yellow and white
+you'll be a primrose, flashing in the sun."
+
+"Mrs. Martens has the most wonderful taste," she informed him. "There's
+a tea-gown of white crape with a little lace wrap--I don't know when
+I'll wear it, but Mrs. Martens insisted--and a new gown for the yacht
+club dance to-morrow night,--and you should see my shoes--five pairs of
+them."
+
+"Such richness!" He smiled into her eager eyes. "Did Diana help you
+choose?"
+
+"Diana's away--on business in the city. That's why I'm free to do as I
+please to-day."
+
+"Are you free to do as you please----?" He seized his opportunity. "Then
+come up to the shed and see my air-ship. We can have a little flight
+across the harbor."
+
+She shook her head. "Oh, I can't. I have an engagement with Captain
+Stubbs and Miss Matthews. We are going fishing in the captain's boat,
+and have lunch on the rocks later."
+
+Justin looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then he said, "Three's a
+crowd. You ought to have four."
+
+"Are you asking--to be invited?"
+
+"Please----"
+
+"But it's Captain Stubbs' party."
+
+"I am perfectly sure that if you'll give me a certificate of good
+character Captain Stubbs will take me aboard."
+
+She seemed to be summing up the situation. "I'm not sure," she said, at
+last, "that you'd fit in----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, the captain's old-fashioned, and Miss Matthews is old-fashioned,
+and I love them both, and so I don't care. But you don't love them."
+
+He flushed. "I see. You're afraid that I'll make them feel
+uncomfortable. I am sorry you should think that. I'm not quite a cad,
+you know."
+
+There were sparks in his eyes. He wondered that he should be so angry.
+But he was desperately angry with this cool little creature who didn't
+seem to care.
+
+And now she was passing frigid judgment on his blazing words. "Of course
+you aren't a cad. I didn't say you were. But you aren't like Bobbie
+Tucker or Dr. Blake. They have always known these people, and they
+understand them. There are no class distinctions in a town like this,
+you know----"
+
+"Have I seemed such a prig to you?"
+
+She cocked her head on one side and considered him, "Not since I talked
+to Mrs. Martens about you. She told me how nice you were in Germany."
+
+In Germany; ye gods! Was he nice only in _Germany_?
+
+He stared at her blankly. He had a feeling that he would like to shake
+her; that he would like to--kiss her.
+
+In the midst of her conflicting emotions little Miss Matthews arrived,
+and behind her steamed Captain Stubbs.
+
+Justin, murmuring inarticulately, acknowledged the introduction to the
+captain, and greeted Miss Matthews.
+
+Miss Matthews was very prim and trim in a white shirt-waist and stiff
+collar. She had a gray sweater over her arm, and a green veil was tied
+over her soft felt hat. She carried in her hand a brown Boston bag, the
+contents of which she explained to Bettina.
+
+"I told the captain I would bring some home-made pickles."
+
+Justin gave immediate attention.
+
+"Miss Matthews," he said, "do you mean to say that you three will eat
+fish chowder and home-made pickles, and that I shan't be there?"
+
+The little captain, in a glow of hospitality, said heartily, "Now, look
+here; can't you come with us?"
+
+Justin showed his white teeth in a flashing smile. "It's an invitation
+that I've been fishing for all the morning, but Miss Dolce won't ask
+me."
+
+"Don't you want him?" the little captain demanded of Bettina.
+
+"Of course," in the tone of one to whom it didn't really matter.
+"Perhaps he can help you with the boat, captain."
+
+Justin, carrying Miss Matthews' bag, helping the captain over with the
+supplies, lifting Bettina over the side of the boat with strong arms
+which yearned to show their strength, was in a mental attitude far
+removed from his King Cophetua mood of the earlier morning. He was at
+this moment a slave chained to Bettina's chariot wheel. And the strange
+part of it was that he gloried in his chains! He realized that he was
+going out with her on a forced invitation, but he was going! And the sea
+was like sapphire, and the sun shone!
+
+Little Miss Matthews, looking back afterward on that glorified fishing
+trip, was forced to confess that Justin left nothing undone for her
+which could be done. Never in her life had she been deferred to by such
+a charming youth, never had her little budget of small talk received
+such respectful consideration, never had she been waited on, hand and
+foot, by such a cavalier!
+
+Rarely did Justin's eyes stray to where Bettina sat beside the captain,
+chatting to him in her confiding voice, making his old heart happy by
+her interest in his sea-seasoned reminiscences.
+
+It was really a most altruistic performance. One might have imagined
+that for Justin there was just one woman in the world--Miss Matthews;
+and for Bettina, just one man--Captain Stubbs. Yet, as the little boat
+rounded the lighthouse point and came into the rougher waters outside,
+young hearts were thrilling to the sound of young voices, and the music
+of the spheres was being played to the accompaniment of beating waves.
+
+When at last they anchored, the fishing was really incidental. To be
+sure it was exciting, and they had an excellent catch, but Bettina's hat
+was off and Justin could see her hair. And Justin, standing up in the
+bow of the boat with his line outflung, was, in Bettina's eyes, more
+than ever like a young Olympian god.
+
+It was the same at lunch time. They landed on a crescent-shaped strip of
+beach, backed by rocky walls, where there was plenty of driftwood for
+their fire. There the captain gave his mind to the making of chowder,
+and Miss Matthews rendered expert service in the cutting up of onions
+and potatoes, and in the frying of salt pork.
+
+Justin opened the pickle bottle and did other prosaic and ungodlike
+acts, and Bettina laid the table on the sands like a real girl instead
+of a transported nymph, yet each saw the other through a golden haze
+which magnified the most trivial act and made it important.
+
+Thus, when Bettina set four blue bowls at exact geometric distances on
+the cloth, Justin thought not of the bowls, but of Bettina's slim white
+hands; and likewise Justin, gathering driftwood, commended himself to
+Bettina not for his industry, but for his swinging walk and square
+shoulders.
+
+For several days Bettina had been heavy-hearted. She had not seen
+Anthony. He had called her up over the telephone, and had made his
+excuses; there was the little girl with the appendicitis and the old man
+with the pneumonia--how Bettina hated the repetition. He would come and
+see her as soon as possible, he promised, but he had not come.
+
+Diana, too, had not been like herself. On the morning after Bettina's
+visit to Anthony's house she had not appeared until luncheon. She had
+looked like a ghost, and had been very busy all the afternoon. She had
+hinted at affairs which would take her to town for a time, and finally
+she had gone away. Even Mrs. Martens had seemed disturbed and restless.
+Hence Bettina had welcomed the invitation from Captain Stubbs. Justin's
+high spirits, his evident delight in her society, his anger at her
+rebuffs--these things soothed and flattered her. Above all there was the
+charm of his glorious youth. She found herself swayed to his mood. Might
+she not for one little fleeting moment dance to the tune that he piped?
+
+Letting herself go, therefore, she was at luncheon bewildering in her
+beauty. Justin's mocking eyes grew tender as he watched her. Here was no
+pretty Beggar Maid for masculine condescension, but rather a little
+goddess to be put on a pedestal and worshiped.
+
+Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews, unconscious of the forces which were
+charging the air about them, ate their chowder and took their enjoyment
+placidly.
+
+"A fish chowder," said the little captain, "never tastes so good in the
+house as it does out-of-doors, with the cod fresh caught, and with the
+smell of the sea for sauce."
+
+Bettina passed her bowl for more.
+
+"It is delicious," she said; "everything is--lovely."
+
+"Isn't it?" said Justin. "There never was such a feast--there never was
+such a day----!"
+
+Yet there had been many such days; there had been many such feasts. But
+not for them! It was the golden age of their existence. The moment of
+youth and joy, unmarred by disillusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+STORM SIGNALS
+
+
+The wind, rising, blew Miss Matthews' green veil into a long thin wisp
+which flapped toward the northwest.
+
+The captain, noticing it, glanced over his shoulder.
+
+"We'll have a storm before we know it," he said. "It's dark enough over
+there in the south----"
+
+Above the horizon rose the clouds, black with wind; the waves began to
+murmur and run in, in long lines of white.
+
+"There'll be no getting back now," said the captain.
+
+Justin's eyes searched the land for shelter. Beyond the rocky wall was a
+hillside of hemlock, which formed part of the estate of a magnate from
+the West. Beyond the trees was a great house, shut up now, and in the
+hands of a caretaker. Nothing else seemed to offer refuge from the
+storm.
+
+"What do you think, captain?" he asked. "Had we better try to make the
+house?"
+
+"I've got my oilskins," the captain said. "I'll stay here, but perhaps
+you folks had better run in."
+
+Miss Matthews protested. "I've lived too long on this coast to mind a
+storm. I'll wrap up in my rubber coat and let it rain. But we'd better
+get that child in somewhere; she's scared of storms."
+
+"Are you?" Justin asked Bettina.
+
+"If there's going to be wind," she said, "I'm awfully afraid."
+
+"Then we'll run for it," he told her; "up the hill to the house."
+
+As he helped her climb the rocks, they took a last glance back at the
+stolid pair who didn't mind storms. Captain Stubbs in brilliantly yellow
+new oilskins and Miss Matthews in a sad-colored waterproof coat sat side
+by side with their backs against the beached boat.
+
+"Perhaps we should have stayed with them," said Bettina, doubtfully, as
+Justin drew her up to his level.
+
+But Justin had no doubts. Ahead of them was the dimness of the hemlock
+forest; the solitude of the storm. He coveted the brief moments when
+they might be alone together.
+
+"Come," he urged, and they entered upon the darkness of the wood.
+
+As they sped along over the cushioned earth, Justin helped her strongly,
+half lifting her at times over the rough places.
+
+"Are you afraid?" he asked her, and she shook her head.
+
+With a roar and a rush the storm was upon them. For a few moments they
+were in the midst of chaos. The air was full of flying things, and the
+branches crashed and fell.
+
+To Bettina, emotionally tense, the real world had disappeared. She was a
+disembodied spirit, floating through infinite space with another spirit
+as joyous, as exalted, as triumphant as her own.
+
+When he asked her again, "Are you afraid?" and she again shook her head,
+it came to her, suddenly, that she was not afraid because she was with
+him. She felt no wonder that it was so. In this wild world there was no
+place for wonder. She and Justin were laughing madly as they raced. Her
+hair, loosed by the wind, streamed out behind her. Once it caught on a
+button of Justin's coat, and held her so close to him that, when he
+unwound it, she felt the quickened beating of his heart.
+
+As they again sped on, she felt as if never before had she been alive in
+such a radiant wonderful sense.
+
+"Are you afraid?" he asked for the third time, bending down to catch her
+answer.
+
+"It's glorious," she panted. Then as the rain came, he shielded her with
+his arm, and shouted:
+
+"We'll have to make a dash through the open; here's the house ahead!"
+
+The great house was closed and deserted, but they found a cloistered
+porch from which they could look out on the storm.
+
+Below them the trees were whipped and bent by the gale. Against the
+horizon the sea rose like a great gray wall. Straining their eyes, they
+could catch a glimmer of the captain's yellow coat on the strip of sand.
+
+"The worst of the wind is over," said Justin; "we were lucky to escape
+the heavy rain."
+
+Bettina, who was braiding her hair, looked up at him. "Wasn't it
+wonderful down there in the wood?"
+
+"Did you think it wonderful?"
+
+Something in his eyes made her say, hastily "I've never been out in a
+storm before."
+
+He did not reply at once. He was watching her slender fingers twist the
+shining strands.
+
+"Let me do that for you," he said, suddenly.
+
+"No, oh, no----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because." She walked away from him, and seated herself on a marble
+bench under one of the closed windows.
+
+He sat down beside her. "I didn't mean that impertinently; truly I did
+not. I used to braid my little sister's hair. She was lame and I took
+care of her, and, as I watched you, I thought of--my little sister."
+
+"Tell me about her."
+
+"There isn't much to tell, except that when I was a great hulking
+youngster, with only her to love--she died----"
+
+"Oh,--I'm so sorry----"
+
+He went on slowly, still watching her busy fingers "Since then I have
+never had a friend. Not the kind she was. Why, she used to love to
+listen to my boy's talk--of how I was going to be great, of how I was
+going to conquer the world,--and she has been dead ten years--and I have
+done nothing."
+
+It was a new Justin who spoke in this fashion. To Bettina he had always
+seemed as light as air, and she had enjoyed his frivolity, but now she
+felt something more than enjoyment,--a yearning to be of use to this
+big boy who was all alone, and who missed his little sister.
+
+Surely to be his friend need not interfere in any way with Anthony's
+claims. She loved Anthony and was going to marry him, of course. But
+friendship and love were different things. Why, Mrs. Martens was
+married, and she had been Justin's friend in Germany.
+
+She spoke her thought. "But Mrs. Martens?"
+
+"She was a dear--but she is older than I--and I stood a bit in awe of
+her--she sympathized with me--but she could not dream with me, and I
+wanted some one to share my dreams."
+
+Bettina's blue eyes were wistful. What a wonderful thing it would be to
+share somebody's dreams. She was perfectly sure that she did not share
+Anthony's. He had never told her of his dreams. Perhaps he didn't have
+any. His life was so practical and full of work, and then he was
+old--oh, yes, indeed, he was older than Mrs. Martens--and Justin had
+said that Sophie was too old to understand.
+
+She found herself asking, "What were your dreams?"
+
+"Shan't I bore you?"
+
+"No--please----"
+
+"Well, there was one dream which my little sister and I used to discuss
+as I braided her hair at night. It was a dream that some day I should be
+great. She had a different idea of greatness from mine, and we used to
+argue the question. I don't think she ever wanted me to be President of
+the United States or to hold high office; she wanted me to do something
+which would help humanity. She used to wish that I might preach or
+teach; she was such a good little thing. And I would tell her that none
+of these vocations were for me; I must win fame in a different way. I
+wanted to invent something which would make the world stare. Perhaps
+that's the reason I took up aviation after she died. I thought I might
+make some great advance on the inventions of other men. But the other
+men made them first, you see, and I've just frivoled and played. Yet, as
+I saw you braiding your hair, it brought back my little sister so
+vividly, and I wondered what she would think of me--now."
+
+For the first time in her life her heart was stirred by the maternal
+tenderness which is the heritage of good women. Her timid hand touched
+his sleeve, lightly.
+
+"I am sure," said her little voice, unsteadily, "that if she knew you
+now, she would think you were--very nice."
+
+"You darling," he was saying in his heart, but he dared not say it with
+his lips. And he went on as calmly as he could.
+
+"I wish I could make you see my little sister as I knew her. She was
+such a pale little thing, with pale gold hair, and a little narrow face,
+and pale blue eyes. When I began to read Tennyson, I found my little
+sister again in 'Elaine'--and do you know, I was half glad she didn't
+live to grow up. Some man might have hurt her as Lancelot hurt Elaine. I
+know I haven't realized her dreams for me--but I've tried to hold on a
+bit to her ideal of goodness, and it has kept me from things which might
+have made me less of a man----"
+
+She was thrilled as she had never been. Justin began to loom up in her
+mind's eye as the Knight of the Tender Heart--that was what Sophie had
+called him. And how wonderful that he should be telling her all this!
+
+"Then," he continued, "the money came to me, and since then I've been a
+butterfly. I have not made good use of my wealth. I have needed a
+friend, you see, to help me make my dreams come true."
+
+He looked down at her. "Would you?" he asked.
+
+"Be your friend?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, but I'm not good enough. I've always been a little selfish thing,
+except with mother. I loved her and I wasn't selfish with her. But I've
+wanted a good time, and I haven't cared for anything but my own
+pleasure. I'm not like your little sister, you see. I'm just a
+butterfly, too."
+
+"Oh, you--you're an angel," ardently.
+
+Again she was thrilled. Anthony had never said such things to her.
+Anthony had called her a child, and he had not needed her. And Justin
+wanted her friendship! All her awakened womanhood rose to meet his
+demand.
+
+So intent was she on her thought that she did not feel the cold. But her
+lips were blue, and she shivered as the wind swept around the corner.
+
+Justin jumped at once to his feet.
+
+"I'm a brute to keep you here. There must be some one around the place
+who can take us in."
+
+He left her, to come back presently with the news that there was a man
+down at the stables, and that there was a fire in the harness room. He
+brought a rain coat, and wrapped her in it, scolding himself all along
+the way for his neglect of her comfort.
+
+The stables of the Western magnate were vast and wonderful. They had
+been divorced somewhat from their original use as a place for horses,
+two-thirds of the space being given up to motor cars and electrics. But
+the riding horses were in their stalls, and, as Bettina entered, their
+heads went up.
+
+She stopped to pet them, then the groom led the way to the harness room.
+
+It was a picturesque place, with its lacquered leather, its shining
+brass, its racing trophies, blue ribbons, gold-handled whips and crops,
+silver cups and medals.
+
+"I'll telephone for my car," Justin said, "and send a boy down to
+Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews. They'll probably go back in the boat,
+now that the storm is over."
+
+With the message sent, and the smiling groom, pleased with Justin's
+generous tip, dismissed, the two were again alone.
+
+"This is better," said Justin, as they settled themselves in front of
+the fire. "Now you'll get some color in your cheeks."
+
+With her chin on her hand, she said slowly, "Do you know that nobody
+ever asked me to be his friend before?"
+
+"That's luck for me. There'll be no one else to share----"
+
+She glanced up at him with enchanting shyness. "The trouble with most
+men is, I imagine, that they don't want friendship--they want love, and
+that isn't easy for a woman to give, is it?"
+
+Silence, then at last, uncertainly, "I suppose not."
+
+"Any man can fall in love with a woman," she informed him, "but it seems
+to me that it must take certain kinds of men and women to be friends.
+That's why it seems so wonderful. Why, even if I married some one else,
+I could still be your friend, couldn't I?"
+
+"Ye-es. Oh, yes, of course."
+
+"Perhaps that's what I've missed all my life--the chance to really
+inspire some one. You know it's nice to feel that you're helping. And
+some men are so self-sufficient, so secure. You wouldn't feel that you'd
+dare to suggest. You'd only be a child to them--and while it might be
+nice to marry a man like that, it would be nice, too, to have the other
+kind for a friend."
+
+Of all the bewildering little creatures! If she married some other man,
+forsooth! He set his teeth. Well, she _shouldn't_ marry any other man.
+
+"Look here," he asked, suddenly, "have you ever been in love?"
+
+She nodded, all rosy color and drooped lashes. The unexpectedness of her
+answer made him hesitate, but finally he ventured, "How did it feel?"
+
+She considered gravely. "Why, it's comfortable to know that you'll
+always have some one to take care of you, some one who's tender and
+good--too good, perhaps----"
+
+Justin was perplexed. She had spoken in the present tense. Was it
+possible that her fancy was really held by Anthony? Had their wild race
+in the storm meant nothing to her? To him it had seemed a sort of
+spiritual mating, with the storm crashing out a brilliant bridal chorus.
+
+He leaned forward. "What you're talking of isn't love," he said, almost
+roughly. "Love doesn't mean being comfortable; it doesn't mean being
+petted and coddled like a pussy cat, or being looked after like a child.
+It means what it meant to Romeo when he killed himself for love of
+Juliet. It means what it meant to Orpheus when he followed Eurydice to
+the underworld. It means what it will mean to me when I have found the
+one woman--that I'll work for her, live for her, die for her, and count
+the future blank if she does not love me in return."
+
+"How wonderful!" she whispered after a moment "How wonderful--to be
+loved--like that----"
+
+His heart leaped. Some day he would make it wonderful! But not now. It
+was too soon to say the things he had to say.
+
+"The most wonderful thing right now," he said, "is that you are going to
+be--my friend."
+
+She responded radiantly. "It will be lovely to have a--big brother."
+
+"It will be lovelier to have--a little sister."
+
+He held out his hand to her, and she took it, laughing lightly. And just
+then the smiling groom came to say that the gentleman's car was at the
+door.
+
+The rain had stopped, but storm signals still showed in the south where
+the heavy clouds hung over the horizon. Overhead the sun shone, making
+kaleidoscope effects of the spring flowers in the checkered beds.
+Against the gray wall of the terraced garden the peach trees had been
+trained in foreign fashion and were full of rosy bloom.
+
+Bettina, coming out of the darkened stable, opened her eyes wide.
+
+"What a different world it seems," she said, "from the one we left in
+the storm."
+
+Justin helped her into the car. "We'll reach home before the next storm
+breaks," he remarked, as he took his seat beside her, "but there's
+trouble ahead."
+
+To him the words held no sinister meaning, nor to Bettina. In their
+hearts was no fear of the future, nor of the storms which might some day
+wreck their happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WHITE MAIDEN
+
+
+Bettina, lonely in her tower, had often looked across enviously to the
+brilliantly lighted yacht club on the nights of the weekly dances.
+
+And now she was going to a yacht club dance with Justin in attendance,
+and with Sophie for chaperon; with Sara and Doris and Sara's brother
+Duke to be added to the party when they reached the club-house pier.
+
+The question of Bettina's gown had been a puzzling one. Sophie had
+brought out everything of her own, and Diana, white-faced after a
+sleepless night, had tried to put her mind on the matter.
+
+"These are all too elaborate," she said; "she is such a child. Perhaps
+it will be best for her to get some new things now, and if you will help
+her choose them, it will be a great favor to me, Sophie."
+
+Sophie came over and kissed her. "Poor dear," she murmured.
+
+Diana leaned back against her friend. "Don't," she said in a stifled
+voice. "I can't bear it."
+
+They clung together for a moment, then Diana went on steadily, "I am
+going to town for a few days, Sophie--I _must_ get away for a bit, and
+if you don't mind, you can take Bettina in while I am gone and get her
+things. She insists that they shall not be gifts from me. She says that
+she's already under great obligations--and that her own little bank
+account is sufficient for her needs. Then, too, she can use all of her
+new things in her trousseau, and it does seem rather sensible, doesn't
+it?"
+
+Diana had said nothing to Sophie of the meeting with Anthony in the
+empty house. It was an experience too sacred for discussion. But Sophie
+had guessed much. Anthony's continued absence, Diana's restlessness, her
+haggard eyes, her insistent tenderness and care of Bettina, showed the
+sympathetic and anxious friend that something unusual had occurred, and
+that Diana was fighting a tremendous battle alone.
+
+"Just let things run on here," Diana said, "as they always do. You can
+take my place as Bettina's chaperon, and Delia will take care of the
+house. I shan't be missed, and I can--get a perspective on the
+situation."
+
+Sophie protested. "It's too great a strain on you--you'd better send
+Bettina away--she and I could have a little trip somewhere."
+
+"No, it is I who must go," Diana insisted. "Bettina must get acquainted
+with Anthony's friends. If he is going to marry her, he must be proud of
+her. You know that, Sophie," sharply, "it won't do for him to take a
+girl as the mistress of his home whom nobody ever heard of, and who
+could be criticized."
+
+Sophie rubbed her fingers lightly across Diana's forehead. "You think
+only of Anthony--do you never think of yourself?"
+
+Diana stood up. "It's because I think of how foolish I have been," she
+said, "that I can get no rest. I should never have come back to America,
+Sophie."
+
+"But, dearest-dear, how could you know?"
+
+"I couldn't know. But, oh, I wish that I had never come."
+
+Thus it happened that Sophie and Bettina had gone into town, and the
+primrose gown and the little serge suit and the new hats and the five
+pairs of shoes, together with a wonderful creation for the yacht club
+dance, had been sent out, and tried on, and pronounced perfect.
+
+Sophie's taste had supplemented Bettina's meager funds. From her own
+store of exquisite laces and brocades, of buckles and bows, she had
+added finishing touches to frocks which might otherwise have been
+commonplace.
+
+When, therefore, on the day after her adventure with Justin Bettina took
+off her wrap in the cloak room of the yacht club, Sara Duffield drew a
+sharp breath of amazement.
+
+"Will you look at that gown, Doris?" she said to her placid friend.
+"Would any one but an artist have dared to put on that side sash of
+rose-colored tulle with the silver tassel, and the wide collar of silver
+lace?"
+
+Justin Ford, knowing nothing of dressmakers, was none the less aware of
+the inspired creation.
+
+"And I said yesterday that you could not wear pink! But this isn't pink,
+is it? It's a rosy cloud on a May morning."
+
+"Do you really like it?" demanded Bettina.
+
+"I love--it."
+
+Bettina laughed light-heartedly. It was great fun to have such a
+friendly understanding with this very charming young man. She wondered
+how she had quite--dared. Things seemed so different under this blaze of
+light. Had she really promised to be a "little sister" to this most
+distinguished gentleman?
+
+They had come over in Bobbie's motor boat, and just before they reached
+the club-house pier, Justin had said, "The first dance is mine, you
+know. I'd like the second and the third, but I suppose that is
+forbidden. But you must give me all you can. I feel that I have special
+brotherly privileges."
+
+She danced exquisitely, her little satin-shod feet slipping silently
+through all the difficult twists and turns of the syncopated modern
+dances. Justin, guiding her expertly, knew that many glances were being
+leveled at them, knew that questions were being asked, that Bettina was
+being weighed in the social balance by the men and women who could make
+her success secure.
+
+When he gave her over, presently, to another partner he became aware of
+undercurrents. The girl with whom he danced shrugged her shoulders when
+he spoke with enthusiasm of Bettina's beauty.
+
+"Sara was telling me," she said, "that she used to live in the old Lane
+mansion, and that Diana Gregory has taken her up."
+
+"Sara?"
+
+Justin looked across the room to where Sara was dancing with Bobbie.
+And he made up his mind that before the evening was ended he should have
+something to say to the haughty little lady in blue.
+
+His opportunity came, presently, when he claimed Sara for a Spanish
+variation of the ever-popular Boston, in which his step particularly
+suited hers.
+
+"Look here," he remarked, as they swayed to the music, "it's up to us,
+Sara, to see that Bettina makes a hit."
+
+Sara, tilting her chin, demanded, "Why?"
+
+"Because she is Diana Gregory's friend, and Diana's anxious to have
+people like her."
+
+"Why?"
+
+He gazed down at the irritating profile.
+
+"You know why," he said with great distinctness. "Diana Gregory has a
+big heart, and this child has had a hard time. Diana wants to make her
+happy----"
+
+"But _why_ is Diana so interested, Justin? There are plenty of lonely
+and unhappy girls. So why should Diana especially pick out Bettina?
+She's years younger than Diana, and they really haven't much in common."
+
+"She's very sweet----" Justin was quite unaware of the intense fervor of
+his tones.
+
+Sara's eyes narrowed to little flashing points, as she asked, "Are you
+in love with her?"
+
+Their eyes met. "Oh, Sara, Sara," he teased, "do you expect me to wear
+my heart upon my sleeve?"
+
+"I expect you to keep it from wandering toward the daughter of an
+Italian singer," she said, sharply. "I always fancied that you had
+rather decided ideas about family, Justin."
+
+"If you mean that I'm proud of my Knickerbocker ancestry, I am," he told
+her; "just as you are proud of your Pilgrim forefathers. But Bettina
+Dolce's blood is bluer than any that ran in the veins of our
+middle-class English and Dutch grandsires. Her father was a Venetian,
+and Bettina has the beauty of those lovely ladies of old Italy."
+
+Sara's beauty was of an essentially modern type. "I don't see," she
+said, somewhat resentfully, "why I should be expected to fight the
+social battles of a girl who is really nothing to me."
+
+"Surely not," easily, "but I rather fancy that any one who snubs Bettina
+will have to reckon with Diana--and with me----"
+
+Sara's lashes hid her sharp little eyes. She was thinking rapidly. She
+did not care to offend Diana--but more, oh, much more than that, she
+did not care to offend Justin.
+
+She capitulated pensively. "Why, Justin, I don't know why you are
+calling me to account in this way. I'm sure I'm perfectly willing to
+help things along."
+
+"Good," was his delighted comment, and after that he danced with a heart
+as light as his heels.
+
+When the music stopped, Duke Duffield made his way toward them. "Oh,
+look here," he said to his sister; "why didn't you present me sooner to
+Miss Dolce? Gee, Sara, she's some dream--and her dance card was filled
+before I could get to it."
+
+Justin smiled at this slangy confirmation of his own opinion. He drifted
+presently through the room, looking for Bettina, and just as the music
+began again its rhythmical beat he saw her.
+
+Far at the other end of the room she was dancing with Anthony Blake!
+
+Bettina had never been so happy. Anthony's coming had pleased her. He
+had half promised that he might come, but there had been, as always, the
+possibility in the background that he would be kept away by some
+inconsiderate patient. But now he was here, and she was to have her next
+dance with Justin. Could anything be lovelier than to spend her evening
+thus between lover and friend, having Anthony's strength and kindliness
+to make her feel secure, and Justin's glowing youth to match her own.
+
+She decided that when she and Anthony were alone she would tell him
+about the race in the storm, and about her friendly compact with Justin.
+She was never going to keep anything from Anthony. Why, he was the best
+man in the whole wide world--the very best.
+
+She looked up at him with her eyes like stars and he, meeting that
+radiant glance, asked, "Are you happy, child?"
+
+She blushed and nodded. "Very, very happy!"
+
+And after that she danced in dreamy silence until Justin came for her.
+
+At supper, Anthony claimed Bettina as a matter of course, leaving Mrs.
+Martens to Justin. The four of them, with Bobbie and Doris and Sara and
+her brother ate at a little table on the club-house porch. In the pale
+light of the lanterns Bettina's beauty was more than ever ethereal.
+
+Justin, watching her with puzzled eyes, took note of her dependence upon
+Anthony, of her confiding manner, of her undoubted interest in him. Now
+and then she flashed a glance at Justin, and he was forced to content
+himself with such occasional crumbs from the queen's table.
+
+But he grew restless and uneasy. Anthony easily dominated the little
+group. It was in such moments that he was at his best. His brilliant
+wit, his forceful personality, had never been displayed to better
+advantage.
+
+Justin, beside him, felt young and crude. He told himself that he had
+nothing to fear. Everybody knew that Anthony cared only for Diana. Yet,
+even as he comforted himself, he saw Bettina's look of triumphant pride
+as Anthony brought a clever story to its climax, and his heart raged in
+impotent jealousy.
+
+They all went back together in Bobbie's motor boat, and in the darkness
+Justin managed to say to Bettina, "So you've deserted me."
+
+"Oh, no," she protested, "but you see I couldn't desert--Anthony."
+
+"Has he, then, the first claim?" his voice shook as his dull resentment
+flamed.
+
+She hesitated. "He--has been so kind--and he's a sort of guardian--you
+know----"
+
+She dared not tell him more than that, for had she not promised Diana
+that she would not? Her nature was so crystal clear that she would have
+been glad to set things straight, to tell him that she was going to
+marry Anthony, but that she would always be his friend. It was such a
+perfect arrangement; he would surely understand.
+
+She sighed a little, wishing that she had nothing to hide. And with her
+sigh his moodiness vanished.
+
+"If it's because he's your guardian, all right--but I'm not going to
+give you up always so easily."
+
+"Why must you give me up at all?" she challenged.
+
+"Why?" he echoed. "There is no 'why.' I shall never give you up."
+
+At Diana's door she said "Good-bye." "It has been the loveliest evening
+of my life," she told him. "I shall never forget."
+
+Anthony came in, ostensibly to telephone, but really to have a moment
+alone with Bettina. Sophie, with sympathetic insight, made the excuse of
+a letter, which Anthony could mail, and withdrew to write it.
+
+In the dimly-lighted music room, Anthony said, "You must forgive me,
+dear child, for seeming to neglect you, but I've been such a busy man."
+
+"I know." She looked up at him. "But it seems nice to have you now."
+
+"And it seems nice to have you."
+
+He smiled at her, but he did not touch her. Somehow since that night in
+the empty house with Diana he had felt that there were things which must
+come slowly. If he was to play the lover to little Betty, it must be
+when he could shut out from his heart the image of that pale tall woman
+in the lilac-scented room.
+
+But Bettina missed nothing from his manner. She felt for him a grateful
+affection, an unbounded respect, but her wish for impulsive
+demonstration was gone. She was content to be near him, to know that he
+cared for her--beyond that she had no conscious desires.
+
+Still smiling at her, he took from his pocket a little box. "I haven't
+been too busy to remember that I wanted to give you this," he said, and
+handed it to her.
+
+Set in a slender ring were three great diamonds, and for a guard there
+was a little circlet of sapphires.
+
+"Perhaps you won't care to wear it now," he said, as she gave a gasp of
+delight, "but I wanted you to have it. I wanted it to be the sign and
+seal of the bond which is between us."
+
+She came to him, then all gratitude and clinging sweetness, and put up
+her face to be kissed.
+
+He touched his lips to her forehead. And he said he was glad that he had
+made her happy. But he did not tell her that he had forced himself to
+plight thus, tangibly, his troth to her that there might be no escape
+from the path of honor which he must follow.
+
+Little Bettina, alone that night in her room, took off the rosy dress
+and laid it on her bed. Then, enveloped in her long white motor coat,
+she went out on her porch, and curled up in one of the big chairs.
+Across the harbor the lights were out at the yacht club. Between the
+Neck and the main shore little starlike points showed where the lanterns
+were swung on the sleeping boats. It was long after midnight, and the
+cold morning mists were already coming in.
+
+But she could not sleep. She had so many wonderful things to think of. A
+few weeks ago she had been a little lonely child with no one who cared
+whether she lived or died--now she was rich in love and friendship.
+
+She turned the ring on her finger. How strange it seemed to think that
+in a few short months she would be--married. That she would belong to
+Anthony until death should part them.
+
+Her breath came quickly. She stood up, slim and white in her long coat.
+Then suddenly she slipped to her knees.
+
+"Oh, please, please," she prayed, with her face upturned to the waning
+stars, "make me worthy of his love. Make me worthy to be his wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+YOUTH AND BEAUTY
+
+
+It was two days after the dance at the yacht club that Diana came home.
+She arrived late and unexpectedly. Bettina had gone to bed, and the only
+light which burned to welcome her was Sophie's, on the third floor.
+
+Diana paid her cabman, and set her key in the lock, to be welcomed by
+Peter Pan's purring note as she opened the door.
+
+She stooped and picked up the big cat. "Dear Peter," she whispered.
+
+Peter, held against her heart, sang his little song of content, and,
+standing for a moment in the darkness, Diana fought for self-control
+before she went up to Sophie's room.
+
+Mrs. Martens, wrapped in her gray kimono, was writing letters. She
+looked up with a glad cry as Diana entered.
+
+"Why, Diana," she said, "you darling!"
+
+"I didn't telegraph," Diana said, as she kissed her friend, "for there
+wasn't any use. I had my key, and I knew I could get a cab----"
+
+"You're tired, dearest-dear." Sophie's worried eyes noted the weariness
+of gesture and tone, and the shadows under Diana's eyes as she untied
+her veil and took off her hat.
+
+"Yes, I'm tired, dead tired." Diana dropped into a chair, and laid her
+head against the cushioned back.
+
+Sophie bent over her. "You're not comfortable," she said; "come on down
+to your room and take a hot bath, and I'll heat a cup of milk, and then
+you can rest all warm and comfy, and I'll rub your head."
+
+"Sophie," said Diana, suddenly, "I wonder if I ever rubbed anybody's
+head?"
+
+"Of course," said Sophie; "what makes you say that?"
+
+"Because I've been thinking a lot since I went to town, and it seems to
+me that all my life I've just taken and have not given. I took Anthony's
+love--I've taken your service----" She held out her hand. "Oh, I've been
+a selfish pig, Sophie, darling."
+
+Sophie took the extended hand and patted it. "What a silly thing to
+say," soothingly; "you've always been everything--to me, Diana. You've
+done so much for me that I can never repay."
+
+"Oh, yes, in giving big things--but it's the little things that
+count--like heating cups of milk and rubbing people's heads."
+
+She said it whimsically, but there were tears in her eyes.
+
+"You come right down and go to bed," Sophie advised. "And we can talk
+all about it afterward."
+
+Diana, propped up among her pillows, watched her friend as she flitted
+like a gray moth about the room, intent on various comforting offices,
+and when at last Sophie brought to her a steaming cup Diana said, "Do
+you know, Sophie, I've always thought myself a rather superior person."
+
+"Well, you are," Sophie agreed.
+
+"I'm not. Oh, I've made up my mind about things at last, and I know that
+it hasn't been Bettina's happiness, nor Anthony's happiness that I have
+been thinking about, but my own.
+
+"If I had not stayed on after I found out the state of things here," she
+continued, "Anthony would have learned to care for Betty--every man
+loves youth and beauty----"
+
+Sophie shook her head. "It takes us women all of our lives to learn
+that it is not for the red of our lips or the blue of our eyes that we
+are loved----"
+
+"Oh, but you know it is the beautiful women who draw men----"
+
+"But it is not the beautiful women who hold them. I'll set any demure
+little soul with a loving heart against all the faultlessly-regular
+-splendidly-null persons in the world when it comes to keeping the
+affections of a husband--and what has Bettina that she can give Anthony
+to take the place of the things which he has loved in you?"
+
+"She has youth."
+
+"How you harp on that string! You have a mind and soul which meets
+Anthony's. And your beauty equals hers. You must not forget that,
+Diana."
+
+"I don't forget it. I know what I mean to Anthony. But Bettina will mean
+other things to him. And who shall say which of us would make the better
+wife?
+
+"Oh, I've thought these things all out, and I know that I could never be
+happy, Sophie, if my happiness were founded on the hurt heart of that
+child. And so--I am going away--and let things go back to where they
+would have been if I had never come----"
+
+"Do you think they can--ever go back, Diana?"
+
+Diana, remembering Anthony's face in the moonlight, hesitated, then she
+said, bravely, "I shall not ask myself that question, Sophie. I shall
+simply do the thing which will seem right to me, and I am sure it is
+right for me to go away."
+
+"And Bettina?"
+
+"She must stay here with you until she is married. You won't mind, will
+you? There will be plenty of things to do. You can help with her wedding
+outfit. And after they are--married, you and I will go back--to Berlin.
+No, we won't, Sophie. We'll go to the desert, and down the Nile, and
+we'll go to Japan, and see Fujiyama; and we'll visit the temples in
+China, and we'll find out from some of those old Buddhists how they
+acquire--peace----"
+
+"We will go to the ends of the earth if you wish--but there's only one
+place that I shall ask you to take me, Diana."
+
+"Where, dear heart?"
+
+"To that quiet spot over there in Germany, where the big cross stands up
+against the sky----"
+
+"Sophie--of course you shall go there, dear."
+
+Mrs. Martens knelt by the bed. "I've been thinking of my lover, too,
+while you've been away. We have each lost the man who made the world a
+wonderful place--henceforth you and I must live among the shadows--but
+because we have each other, it shall not be quite so hard."
+
+It was a long time before they came back to the question of Diana's
+departure.
+
+"But what excuse can you give for going now, Diana?"
+
+"My health," said Diana, promptly. "Everybody knows that I first went to
+Germany for the baths, and I can say what is true,--that the dampness
+here disagrees with me, with my throat."
+
+"But where will you go?"
+
+"To the mountains; oh, Sophie, I shall lift up my eyes to the hills, and
+hope for strength----"
+
+Out of the ensuing silence came the sound of a little tap at the door.
+
+"Is Diana there?" asked Bettina on the other side. "I thought I heard
+her voice."
+
+As Bettina came in, the radiance of youth shone from within and round
+about her. She kissed Diana. "Oh, so many things have happened,"
+rapturously, "since you went away. Do you want me to tell you about
+them?"
+
+"You blessed baby," said Diana, and it seemed to Sophie that in her
+voice was a note of sincere affection.
+
+Bettina curled herself up on the foot of Diana's bed. "Well, in the
+first place," she said, "Anthony gave me a ring--a lovely ring, and a
+little guard to wear with it."
+
+Diana did not flinch. "And why aren't you wearing your lovely ring," she
+asked, "for all the world to see?"
+
+"Oh, but you said I mustn't," Bettina told her, "and so I keep it here."
+
+She tugged at a slender chain which hung around her neck, and brought
+forth from beneath the embroidered thinness of her gown the two rings,
+which gave out flashing lights as she bent toward Diana.
+
+Diana did not touch them. "They're lovely," she said, steadily; "aren't
+they, Sophie?"
+
+"I'm glad he didn't give me pearls," Bettina went on, as Mrs. Martens
+exclaimed at their beauty, "because pearls mean tears."
+
+"I've always worn pearls," said Diana.
+
+"Oh, but not as love gifts," said Bettina, quickly. "It's only when your
+lover gives you a pearl that you weep--my mother's gift from my father
+was a great pearl--and when--he went away--she dropped it--into the
+sea.
+
+"And I didn't blame her." Bettina was swinging her own rings back and
+forth, and they gave out a silvery tinkle like a chime of fairy bells.
+"I didn't blame her, although the pearl was worth a great deal of money
+and we were poor. I shouldn't want a ring after a man had ceased to love
+me, would you?"
+
+"Of course not," said Diana, "and now--tell me, what were the other nice
+things which happened while I was away?"
+
+"Oh," Bettina laughed, "I went fishing with Captain Stubbs and Miss
+Matthews, and Justin----"
+
+"Justin?"
+
+"Yes. Justin Ford. He invited himself. I told Mrs. Martens when I came
+home that I tried not to have him go, but he would, and it stormed----
+Oh, well, we had a lovely time."
+
+Somehow she had found it hard to tell Mrs. Martens, as she was finding
+it hard to tell Diana, just what had made the day so lovely. And as for
+her compact of friendship, she would tell Anthony but no other.
+
+"Then there was the yacht club dance," she continued, "and oh, Diana,
+you should have seen my gown--it was a dream."
+
+Sophie confirmed her verdict. "She was lovely in it, Diana," she said,
+"and everybody is talking of the success she made."
+
+"And Anthony came," said Bettina, "and when we reached home he gave me
+the ring, and yesterday I had a long ride with him; oh, yes, and the day
+before, Justin and Sara and Doris and I had lunch on Bobbie's boat."
+
+"I thought Bobbie's boat was in the yard for repairs?"
+
+"It is," said Bettina, "and that's the fun of it. He's living on board,
+and yesterday he and Justin looked up and saw me on the porch, and they
+insisted on having a lunch party, and Bobbie made his man get up a
+perfectly wonderful little lunch, and he telephoned for the other girls,
+and Duke, and we climbed the ladder and ate up there in the air, and
+Sophie chaperoned us from your front porch."
+
+"They wanted me to climb the ladder too," said Sophie, "but I told them
+I would be a little angel up aloft, and play propriety at a safe
+distance. It's a good thing the yacht yard happens to be at the foot of
+your rocks, Diana, or I'm afraid Bettina would have gone unchaperoned.
+It's a dizzy height up that ladder."
+
+"And Bobbie sent things up to her in a basket," Bettina related; "we let
+down a piece of hammock rope, and we tied the basket to it."
+
+Diana, listening to the light chatter, felt set apart by the tragedy of
+her own unhappiness. Once she would have enjoyed an escapade like the
+lunch party; now she was glad that she could go away--and leave it all
+behind her and perhaps--forget.
+
+"Bobbie is such a funny fellow"--Bettina was still swinging the tinkling
+rings--"and he's awfully in love with Doris. And Doris worships him, and
+it makes Sara furious."
+
+"But, my dear, Sara isn't the least bit in love with Bobbie."
+
+"I know, but she thinks Doris is so silly to let Bobbie see--but that's
+just what Bobbie adores in her. He likes to be worshiped, and he's
+positively puffed up with pride like a pouter pigeon because he's going
+to marry Doris."
+
+"Then it's settled?" Diana asked.
+
+"Yes. It seems he proposed on the night of the yacht club dance, and
+yesterday at lunch Bobbie announced it, and he blushed and Doris
+blushed--but really it was awfully sweet, Diana--they are so happy."
+
+"At first I thought Bobbie liked Sara," Bettina stated, later.
+
+"Oh, no." Diana laughed. "It's Justin, you know, with Sara."
+
+The flashing rings tinkled, tinkled. Bettina's eyes were on them.
+
+"Oh, are they--engaged?"
+
+"Oh, no; it's just a friendship, I fancy."
+
+So? Other girls were his friends! Bettina's head went up, and she
+slipped the rings back in their hiding place.
+
+"They've always known each other," Diana explained. "You see Sara was a
+sharp-tongued little girl, and Justin could get along with her better
+than the other boys because of his easy-going ways. And he gets along
+with her now, but usually it is a sort of armed truce."
+
+Bettina felt better, but needing further assurance, she ventured, "I
+suppose he has a sort of brotherly feeling for her."
+
+It was Sophie who answered that question.
+
+"No, he hasn't. Justin adores the memory of his own little sister. She
+was a dear child and lame. And she was about as like Sara, I imagine,
+as a white dove is like a peacock. Justin has often told me that when he
+marries he wants to find a woman to whom he can tell his dreams as he
+told them to his little sister--it is perhaps because he has failed to
+find such a woman that he is unmarried."
+
+It seemed to Bettina, suddenly, that all the stars sang! "Oh, it's such
+a lovely world"--she was all aglow--"and you've made it lovely for me,
+Diana, by having me here, and doing wonderful things for me."
+
+"I want you to stay for a long time, dear, until you are married. But
+you'll forgive me if I go away and leave you alone with Sophie for a
+while?"
+
+"Oh, must you go away again?"
+
+"Yes. I'm not well. This air doesn't agree with--my throat," Diana
+stammered, not caring to meet the clear eyes.
+
+"Oh, but I'm afraid that I'm terribly in the way," Bettina said
+distressfully. "You'll want Mrs. Martens to go with you. You mustn't
+have her stay on my account. I can go back to my rooms with Miss
+Matthews. Really I can--I shouldn't mind."
+
+"My dear, I should mind very much." Diana reached out her hand to her.
+"Don't make me unhappy by taking it that way--I want you here."
+
+"But you've done enough for me, putting yourself out in this way----"
+
+"I have done only the things that I wanted to do. And now don't make me
+unhappy by suggesting that you won't keep poor Sophie company. What
+would she do without you?"
+
+Bettina looked from one to the other. "Are you very sure you shouldn't
+go away together, if it weren't for me?"
+
+"Very sure--I should bore her terribly."
+
+They all laughed, and Bettina said, "Of course I know you're doing it
+all for my sake----"
+
+"And for Anthony," said Diana, softly; "for the sake of my old friend
+Anthony."
+
+"How wonderful your friendship is," said Bettina, softly. "It makes me
+believe in all friendship, Diana."
+
+A little later she slid down from the bed. "You're tired and I'm keeping
+you up. I'll run along."
+
+But Diana held her for a moment.
+
+"Anthony will soon want to be going into the big house--when will you be
+ready, Bettina?"
+
+"Oh, not yet," said Bettina, breathlessly, "not yet. I'd rather wait.
+Don't you think it will be best to wait?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh," her cheeks flamed, "I don't know why--only I don't want to get
+married--for a long time, Diana."
+
+Diana looked at her with puzzled eyes. There was some change in the
+child which she could not fathom. What had happened to little Bettina in
+the short time since she had been away? She would ask Sophie--she would
+ask--Anthony.
+
+In the adjoining room the telephone rang. Sophie, going to answer it,
+came back with the announcement, "It's Anthony. He wanted to know if you
+had returned. He needs you at the hospital. That little girl with the
+appendicitis is very much worse. But I told him that you had just
+reached home, and that you were so tired, and it was so late----"
+
+"Sophie, how could you? Tell him I'll come. Ask him to send his car for
+me. Bettina, dear, hand me my slippers, and help me with my hair."
+
+Bettina was shivering and white. "Is it the girl Anthony operated on?"
+she asked.
+
+"Yes. Sophie, I'll wear the white serge. It's the easiest to get into,
+and my long coat----"
+
+Bettina's shaking voice went on: "Wouldn't it be--dreadful--if anything
+happened? Wouldn't it be dreadful--if she should die?"
+
+Sophie laid her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Help Diana now, dear," she
+advised; "we'll talk about it afterward."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HER LETTER TO ANTHONY
+
+
+Diana never forgot that ride in the dark to Harbor Light. It was a clear
+night, with the sea like a sheet of silver under the moon. The big
+building, which loomed up, at last, before her, seemed, with its
+yellow-lighted windows, like some monster of giant size, gazing
+wide-eyed upon the waters.
+
+The gardens, through which she passed, were heavy with the scent of
+hyacinths; the slight wash of the waves on the beach only emphasized the
+stillness.
+
+As she drove up to the doorway, two night nurses flitted through the
+corridor, ghost-like in their white uniforms.
+
+Then came Anthony. His face looked worn and worried.
+
+"We couldn't save her, Diana," he said, tensely.
+
+"Oh, the poor little thing!"
+
+"We made a fight for it. I sent for you because if she roused I wanted
+you to be there."
+
+"If you had telephoned sooner."
+
+"I could not. The change was very sudden." He flung himself into a
+chair. "Oh, what is all my skill worth, Diana, when I couldn't save that
+child?"
+
+She had seen him in such moods before, when he had felt powerless
+against all the opposing forces of disease and death.
+
+But she did not care that others should see him. It was enough that she
+should know that this great doctor Anthony had his weaknesses. The rest
+of the world should not know it.
+
+"Come out into the garden," she coaxed; "the air will do you good."
+
+As they walked up and down the garden paths he gave her more definite
+details. "She did not know that she was going. There was no reason to
+trouble her gentle soul with fears. And so, at last, when she drifted
+off into the silence, she was smiling."
+
+"And I am sure that she was still smiling when on the other side she
+found Love waiting."
+
+"How wonderfully you put it, Di."
+
+"It is not because I put it that way; it is because it is wonderful. Do
+you know, Anthony, that has always been my idea of heaven--as a place
+where Infinite Love waits. If that little child had lived she would
+have faced a future of loneliness--now she will never be lonely--never
+sick--never unhappy."
+
+"But she wanted to live."
+
+"But she didn't know life, Anthony--as some of us know it, as a place of
+unfulfilled dreams----"
+
+They had reached the beach, and the track of the moon spread out before
+them, ending only at the horizon.
+
+"She followed the path o' the moon," said Diana, softly, "a little white
+soul in a silver boat. Death is a great adventure, Anthony."
+
+"Sometimes I feel as if I were merely a longshoreman, who helps to load
+the boats as they start on that great adventure----"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, we doctors see so much of pain which we cannot ease, so much misery
+which we cannot prevent. We see the innocent suffering for the
+guilty--the weak bearing the burdens which belong to the strong--and
+even if we try our hardest we can't change these things--and the boats
+still go sailing out to the Unknown----"
+
+"Anthony, I wish I might be sure of one thing----"
+
+"What, dear girl----?"
+
+"That you would never change your present point of view. So many
+doctors lose faith in human nature because they see only the diseased
+side, and their vision becomes distorted. And, losing their faith in
+man, they lose faith in God. The thing which has always made you, in my
+eyes, a great man as well as a great surgeon has been the fact that you
+have seemed to understand that you were working with Infinite Love
+toward the completion of a perfect plan; you have seemed to understand
+that life is good as long as it is lived wisely and well; that death is
+good when it ends suffering and sorrow. These things you have seen and
+known--I want you always to see and know them."
+
+"If any one could make me see and know them it is you, Diana."
+
+They were silent after that, and presently she said that she must go.
+
+Anthony took her home himself in his little car, and when at last they
+reached her door he said, gratefully: "What should I do without your
+friendship? At least I have that, Diana."
+
+She hesitated. "It must be a long distance friendship, Anthony."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I am going away."
+
+"Oh, why should you? We are self-controlled man and woman, not impulsive
+boy and girl. We have set our feet on a hard path. Why shouldn't we
+cheer each other along the way?"
+
+"I'm afraid it wouldn't be fair--to Bettina."
+
+"Why not? My friendship for you need deprive her of nothing."
+
+"I must think it over."
+
+"Don't think. Don't analyze at all. Just stay." A grave smile lighted
+his face. "I'm not making this as a selfish proposition, Diana. I shan't
+expect to absorb you, to take you away from other friendships. But I
+want you to be near me at such times as this; when my world was without
+a ray of light, you illumined it with your friendly taper."
+
+Diana climbed the steps in an uplifted mood. This, then, was the
+solution of the difficulty. She had been making high tragedy of the
+situation when it might be solved sensibly. She remembered a quotation
+which she had copied in her school note-book: "My friend is one with
+whom I can associate my choicest thought." Her friendship with Anthony
+could go on as before. She could be an inspirational force in his life.
+Had she the right to refuse?
+
+She found Bettina and Sophie sitting up for her.
+
+"Oh, you're back so soon," Bettina said. "Is she better? Is that little
+girl better?"
+
+Diana returned to realities with a shock. How selfish she had been! She
+had almost forgotten that poor little soul at the hospital.
+
+"No, she isn't better." She shrank from voicing the truth. "They
+couldn't save her, and before I reached there she was--gone."
+
+"_Dead!_" Bettina shuddered. "Oh, I think such things are dreadful; I
+don't see how Anthony stands it."
+
+"It has made him very miserable," Diana told her; "he hates to lose a
+case."
+
+"Then why does he do it?" Bettina demanded. "Why doesn't he give up his
+surgery? He has enough to do with his freaks at the sanatorium, and his
+sick people who need medicine."
+
+"Would you have a man give up a thing which he can do better than other
+men?"
+
+Sophie, looking on, wondered if there had ever been a greater contrast
+than these two women who faced each other in the rose-colored room.
+Diana, tall and pale, with wisps of hair flying a bit untidily from
+beneath her soft hat, yet still beautiful and with the light of high
+resolve shining in her steady eyes; Bettina, a little slender slip of a
+child, her fair shining braids falling below her knees, her eyes
+demanding why men and women should be dedicated to hardness.
+
+"I have been telling Bettina," Mrs. Martens interposed, gently, "that
+she will understand some day what such a man means to the world."
+
+For once in her life Diana, tired Diana, lost patience. "She ought to
+know what such a man means," she said.
+
+Bettina put her hands before her face and stood very still.
+
+"Oh, dear child," said Diana, remorsefully, "I shouldn't have said such
+a thing to you. I didn't mean it."
+
+[Illustration: "I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID SUCH A THING"]
+
+Bettina's hands dropped straight at her sides. Her blue eyes were misty.
+"But it's true," she said. "I'm afraid--I'm afraid I'm not the wife for
+Anthony."
+
+Never had there been a truer saying. Yet the two older women stood
+abashed before the hurt look on the little white face.
+
+"He has always seemed to me to be the noblest man," Bettina went on. "I
+don't think I have ever felt that he was anything but great. You
+people, who have always had everything, can't understand what he seemed
+to me when he used to come when mother was ill. You can't understand
+what it meant when he came to me when I was almost dead with loneliness,
+and told me that he wanted to marry me--you can't understand how every
+night--I pray--on my knees, that I'll be good enough for him--you can't
+understand how grateful I am--and how I try to appreciate his work; but
+I'm made that way--to hate pain. I hate to know about it--to see it----"
+Again she shuddered.
+
+Diana drew her close. "Oh, you poor little thing," she said, "you poor
+little thing."
+
+When the dawn, not many hours later, peeped into the three rooms, it
+showed, in one, Sophie asleep beneath the picture of her lost lover. In
+another Bettina, asleep, with tears still on her lashes, and with the
+flashing rings rising and falling above her heart. In the third room it
+showed Diana, awake, after hours of weariness--writing a letter to
+Anthony.
+
+When Anthony had read that letter, he left the sanatorium and took a
+path which led him to the hills and into the hemlock forest. The walk up
+the hills was long, and the sun was hot, so that when he reached the
+depths of the wood he threw himself down with a grateful sense of the
+stillness which could not be disturbed by telephone or tap at the door.
+For a little while he lay with his eyes shut, steeping himself in that
+blessed silence.
+
+When at last he sat up, he took from his pocket Diana's letter, and read
+it again, passing his hand now and then nervously through his hair,
+until it stood up like the ruffled plumage of an eagle.
+
+
+  "DEAR ANTHONY:--
+
+  "It will be easier for me to talk with you in this way than face to
+  face. When you are with me, my point of view seems to get mixed up
+  with your point of view, and before I know it, I find myself making
+  promises which I cannot keep, as to-night, when I almost said I would
+  stay--and be your friend.
+
+  "I have always been your friend, Anthony. Haven't I? Even when I was a
+  little girl, and you were a big boy, you seemed to find something in
+  me which made it worth while for you to leave the other big boys and
+  stay with me and talk about my books. Will I ever forget how you read
+  some of them aloud to me? I never open now my thumbed little copy of
+  'Cranford' without hearing your laughing voice stumbling over the
+  mincing phrases, and as for 'Little Women,' I believe that I worshiped
+  in you the personification of 'Laurie.'
+
+  "But those were not the best times, Anthony. The best were when it was
+  too dark to read, and I would curl up on the big bench by the side of
+  the fire, and you would lie at full length on the hearth-rug, and the
+  wind would blow and the waves would boom, and you would weave tales
+  for me out of your wonderful wealth of boyish dreams.
+
+  "Blessed memories! But even then I believe I resented your
+  masterfulness a bit, Anthony. There was that time when you told me
+  that I must get my lessons before you would finish the story which was
+  so near the end. And I cried and coaxed, but you stood firm--and I
+  respected you for it, and hated you and loved you in one breath.
+
+  "Oh, my big boy Anthony! Shall I ever forget you, with your brown lock
+  over your blue eyes, your unswerving honesty of purpose, your high
+  ideals. When you came home from college, and I had just put up my
+  hair, and lengthened my dresses, you started to kiss me, then stopped.
+  'I thought I could,' you said, with such a funny note of surprise in
+  your voice, 'but there's something about you that sort of--holds me
+  off, Di.'
+
+  "I think then that I began to know my power over you. And how I have
+  used it, Anthony! I have kept you single and alone all these years,
+  because something in me would not yield to your kind of wooing.
+
+  "If only you could have been a cave man and could have carried me off!
+  So many women wish that of men, especially proud women. It isn't that
+  we admire brutality, but we want to have all of our little feminine
+  doubts and fears overcome by the man's decisive action. And you made
+  the mistake of waiting patiently, asking me now and then, 'Will you?'
+  instead of saying, 'You must.'
+
+  "Yet while you could not win me, in other ways you dominated me. Do
+  you remember the holidays when I came home from boarding-school, and
+  you were interne at a hospital? You asked me to go to the theater with
+  you, and at the last moment you were called to the operating room to
+  help one of the surgeons. You telephoned that you'd send a carriage
+  for me and my chaperon, but that you couldn't go;--and I wouldn't go
+  either, but stayed at home and sulked, and looked at myself in the
+  glass, now and then, to mourn over the fact that you couldn't see me
+  in my pink organdie with the rosebuds.
+
+  "But you wouldn't even apologize for what I called your neglect. I
+  said I should never go with you. You said it wasn't neglect, and that
+  I should go. And go I did, finally, as meekly as possible, and I wore
+  the pink organdie and had a lovely time.
+
+  "It's the memory of that night when you couldn't fit your plans to
+  mine which has made me write this letter. When I came home from Harbor
+  Light I found Bettina waiting up for me, and she broke down as the
+  depressing realities of your work were forced upon her. I was very
+  toploftical, Anthony--and was prepared to read her a sermon on the
+  duties of a doctor's wife, when all at once I had a vision of myself
+  in that rosebud organdie. I hated your work then, and I felt that you
+  lacked something of devotion to me, to let it keep you from me.
+
+  "But later I felt differently. The world began to call you a great
+  man--and I began to see with clearer eyes what you were doing for the
+  world. And so I helped you at Harbor Light, and saw you there at your
+  best--with your forceful control of all those helpless people, with
+  your steadiness of hand and eye, a king who ruled by virtue of his
+  power over life and death.
+
+  "It was in those days, I think, that I began to worship you. But I
+  never called my worship love. I wanted to be Me, Myself, and somehow I
+  felt that when I was once promised to you I should have no separate
+  identity. It was the rebellion of a strong personality against a
+  stronger one. I was not wise enough to see that you who protected
+  others from the storms of life might want some little haven of your
+  own--a haven which would be--Home.
+
+  "But because you failed to be masterful in the one way which would
+  have won me, because you said, always, 'Will you?' instead of,
+  'Come--let there be no more of this between you and me, Diana,' I went
+  away, not understanding you, not understanding myself.
+
+  "And over there with Sophie, I met Van Rosen. As I look back upon it,
+  I do not wonder that he charmed me. He was different from our American
+  men, a lover of pleasure. He typified the spirit of joy to me--there
+  was never a moment when he had not some vivid plan for me. We did
+  things of which I had always dreamed.
+
+  "He gave a house party for me in his ancestral castle on the Rhine.
+  And he proposed to me in an ancient chapel with the moonlight making
+  the effigies of his old ancestors seem like living knights in golden
+  armor.
+
+  "It was all so picturesque that practical America--that you, oh, I
+  must confess it, Anthony,--seemed miles away. It seemed to me that in
+  my own country we lived dreary lives in a workaday atmosphere. It was
+  only in that castle on the Rhine that there were people who knew how
+  to play. So I became engaged, and through all those months, Van Rosen
+  and I played together.
+
+  "But I grew so tired of it, so deadly tired of it! Life seemed to have
+  no meaning. And after a time I grew a little afraid. Van Rosen was
+  different. I can't define exactly where the difference lay. But
+  between us was the barrier of centuries of opposing traditions. I
+  began to feel that as his wife I should be a Princess in name, but a
+  slave in fact. Always laughing, always seeming to dance in the
+  sunshine, he had a hardness which nothing could soften. I saw him now
+  and then with those whom he considered his inferiors. I saw his
+  treatment of his servants, his horses, his dogs. I heard him speak
+  once to an old and dependent aunt, at another time to a young
+  governess--and my cheeks burned--and I was afraid.
+
+  "It came back to me then how you had always treated those who were
+  weaker than yourself. You had always been a champion of old ladies and
+  children. Every animal, from Peter Pan to your old fat horse--that old
+  fat horse now is living in clover since you acquired your motor
+  cars--adored and followed you.
+
+  "And one day I told Van Rosen--that I couldn't marry him. You don't
+  know how humble I felt to think that I might have hurt him. But in
+  that moment his real self showed. He was angry, furiously angry, and I
+  knew all at once that it was my money, and not me that he wanted.
+
+  "And so I came back to you----
+
+  "But you had Bettina, and there was no place for me. No place for the
+  little dark-eyed girl who had listened to the big boy on stormy
+  nights, no place for the woman who had not known her own heart----
+
+  "And now you want me to be your friend. But I can't be your
+  friend--Anthony. Friendship is for the man and woman who have never
+  loved. A friendship which is the aftermath of love is the shadow after
+  the substance. Can't you see that it is so? Can't you see that there
+  would be just two things which might happen? If I stayed here and
+  tried to be your friend, either I should knit myself to you by ties
+  which should bind you to your wife, or we should drift apart, having
+  the perfect memory neither of love nor of friendship.
+
+  "Bettina is very young, but she has depths of which you have not
+  dreamed, of which I had not dreamed, until I talked with her last
+  night. I went up to her room, and we had a very sweet and tender
+  confidence. It was almost dawn before I left her. She showed me much
+  of her heart, as she will, I hope, some day show it to you----
+
+  "Hers is a little white soul, dear friend. On the surface she has her
+  girlish petulances, her youthful prejudices. But these? Why, I had a
+  thousand of them, Anthony. How I snubbed those poor students whom you
+  brought with you one afternoon to tea because their elbows were shiny
+  and their shoes rusty. I was such a little snob, Anthony. How I should
+  welcome them now--those great doctors, who have done so much for
+  humanity.
+
+  "It is life which teaches us, dear friend. It will teach Bettina. And
+  it must teach me this: To bear the hard things. Do you remember in
+  those days when we read of knights on the battle-field that we loved
+  those who died fighting? And how we hated those who ran away? Well,
+  I'm going to fight--but my fight must begin by running away.
+
+  "It isn't a battle which we can fight together. The two who must do
+  things together are you and Bettina. Any friendship of ours would shut
+  her out. That's the plain truth, and you and I are old enough to know
+  it, Anthony.
+
+  "There's much more that I could say to you. Much more. But you must
+  read between the lines. All my days I shall have in my heart the
+  memory of my dear--big boy. Some day when I am old and you are old, we
+  can be friends. I'll look forward to that day, and it shall be my
+  beacon light in the darkness.
+
+  "It's good-bye, dear, for a long time--good-bye.
+
+  "DIANA."
+
+
+How still it was in the hemlock forest! A squirrel which had ventured
+down from the branches flattened himself against the trunk of a tree and
+peered curiously at the figure which lay face downward on the fragrant
+carpet. One hand, outflung, caught at a little bush and held on as if in
+agony. The other hand grasped the sheets of gray paper, which,
+close-written, in feminine script, had brought a message of infinite
+pain and loss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE LITTLE SILVER RING
+
+
+The yacht yard in which Bobbie's boat was hauled up for repairs lay at
+the foot of the rocks to the north of Diana's house. From the north
+porch, therefore, one could look down on the activities which had to do
+with the bringing in, and putting into shape the fine craft which
+through the summer were anchored in the harbor. A marine railway floated
+the boats in and out at high tide, and at such times creaked
+complainingly.
+
+It was on the north porch that Sophie and Bettina sat on the morning
+after Diana's departure--Sophie knitting a motor scarf for Anthony,
+Bettina hemstitching white frills.
+
+Below in the yacht yard the master gave orders, and the machinery of the
+marine railway began its clanking chorus. Bettina glanced over the rail.
+"Bobbie's boat is going out," she said, "and he and Justin are on
+board."
+
+Justin saw her and called, "May I come up?"
+
+Bettina shook her head at him. "If he thinks I'm going to shriek an
+answer to the housetops, he's mistaken."
+
+Again she shook her head at him, and Justin immediately offered excuses
+to Bobbie.
+
+"You won't mind," he said, "if I go up there?"
+
+Bobbie jeered. "Talk about me! You're here to-day and there to-morrow.
+Yesterday it was Sara, and now it's Betty Dolce."
+
+"It was never Sara."
+
+"That's what I said when I fell in love with Doris, but you wouldn't
+believe me. And I can't quite see the difference."
+
+"I've never cared for Sara in that way."
+
+"Then you have jolly well flirted with her."
+
+"Don't try to be English with your 'jolly wells.'"
+
+Bobbie turned his back on Justin. "I suppose, then, you're not going to
+have lunch with me?" he said over his shoulder.
+
+"Why can't we all have lunch with you?"
+
+"Who is--all?"
+
+"Betty, and Mrs. Martens--and me----"
+
+"Doesn't Doris come into it?"
+
+"Of course, if you can get her up."
+
+"I can always get her up. You know that. But there's nobody just now in
+the world for you but Betty Dolce."
+
+Nobody but Bettina! Justin admitted it to himself triumphantly. Please
+God, there should never be any one but Bettina!
+
+Perhaps something of his thought showed in his face, for Bobbie clapped
+him on the shoulder with a hearty, "Go in and win her, old man, and
+we'll have a double wedding."
+
+"If my wedding," solemnly, "were as sure as yours, I'd burn incense to
+the gods."
+
+"Well, why don't you make it sure?"
+
+"I can't. She stands on her pedestal, and I can't reach up to her."
+
+"Man, you're afraid of her."
+
+"It isn't that. But I'm not in this race to fall out, Bobbie. I guess
+you can see that."
+
+Bobbie nodded. "Anybody who has eyes can see it," he said.
+
+The little yacht was in the water now, still helpless because of her
+furled sails.
+
+Justin, making a bridge of the small boats tied to the floating pier,
+gained dry land, and continued his conversation with Bobbie across the
+intervening space. "Suppose we cut the luncheon out, and go for a sail
+this afternoon. We can land off Gloucester way and have tea at the
+Lobster Pot."
+
+"Tea, meaning lobster sandwiches," said Bobbie. "Do you know, Justin,
+that the whole coast is blossoming with lobster sandwiches? Once upon a
+time one ate muffins with their tea. But now nobody takes tea. They take
+coffee and lobster sandwiches. And I don't like sea foods, and I don't
+drink coffee. Otherwise it is all right."
+
+"We'll have muffins and jam. And you and Doris shall have a table by
+yourselves, and Bettina and I, and we'll ask Anthony to look after Mrs.
+Martens." He stopped. "No, we won't ask Anthony--he has a fashion of
+claiming Bettina. He's her guardian, you know."
+
+"Look here, Justin. Did it ever occur to you that he'd like to be
+more--than a guardian?"
+
+"It's Diana for Anthony, Bobbie."
+
+"I'm not so sure. Doris says there is something queer about it all----"
+
+"Queer?"
+
+"Oh, about Diana having Bettina here, and then going away and leaving
+her----"
+
+"Sara's been talking. Doris wouldn't think such unpleasant things,
+Bobbie--there isn't anything between Anthony and Betty. There can't be
+anything----"
+
+But even as he said it he was stabbed by the memory of Bettina's radiant
+look of pride as she sat beside Anthony on the night of the yacht club
+dance.
+
+"No man," said Bobbie, "is going to wait forever, and Betty Dolce is a
+very lovely little lady. All the boys at the club are crazy about her,
+and if it hadn't been for Doris there's no telling how I might have
+felt--but Doris is the last one, Justin."
+
+"Good. I'll wigwag from the porch, Bobbie. Keep your eyes open for my
+signal."
+
+Bettina, still hemstitching on white frills, welcomed Justin with a
+charming smile, but with a decided negative to his invitation.
+
+"I'm going out with Anthony."
+
+Justin eyed her reproachfully. "I told you once before that three was a
+crowd----"
+
+"Oh, but this time it isn't three, but two--Anthony and I are going
+alone in his little car, and we are to have dinner at Green Gables."
+
+All the laughter died out of his face. "Oh, I'm afraid you must think me
+all kinds of fool." He turned abruptly to Sophie. "Mrs. Martens, you'll
+go in Bobbie's boat, won't you? He's dying to ask Doris."
+
+"Do you really want me?" Sophie asked, brightly.
+
+"Always, dear lady."
+
+Bettina, bending over her frills, felt a sudden sense of desolation.
+
+"Oh, dear," she said, wistfully. "Why do all the nice things come at
+once?"
+
+With that sigh, joy came back to Justin.
+
+He dropped into a chair beside her. "What time will you get home
+to-night?" he asked.
+
+"At eight. Anthony's office hours begin then."
+
+"May I come up?"
+
+"May he, Sophie?"
+
+"It's my bridge night at the club, dear----"
+
+"Oh----"
+
+"Please," Justin pleaded.
+
+Sophie laughed. "Well, Delia shall chaperon you. Of course you may come,
+Justin."
+
+Justin, signaling Bobbie a moment later, was conscious of a wild desire
+to shout to the four winds of heaven the fact that for one little hour
+he was to have his goddess to himself.
+
+For Justin's coming that night Bettina put on her white crepe tea gown
+with the little lace mantle. She was very tired after her ride with
+Anthony. There had been no reason for fatigue. He had been most kind and
+considerate. But Bettina's little efforts at conversation had seemed to
+her childishly inadequate. She had felt a sense of deadly depression.
+What should she do to interest him through all the years? Would he
+always have his mind on the things of which she knew nothing? Would she
+always try and never make a success of her efforts to enter into his
+life?
+
+She had tried to tell him about Justin--about their compact of
+friendship--yet the words had died on her lips. Suppose he did not
+understand? Suppose he did not approve? Suppose he should forbid her to
+have a big brother--as he had forbidden her to fly in the "Gray Gull"
+with Justin?
+
+She dared not risk such a catastrophe. She clung desperately to the
+thought of Justin's youth and gayety. No, Anthony might not understand,
+so why should she discuss it with him?
+
+At dinner Anthony roused himself and had played the gracious host. Yet
+on the return trip he had relapsed into silence, and she had again felt
+that sense of desperate failure. Oh, what kind of wife was she going to
+make for this grave Anthony, this great Dr. Anthony, who loved her and
+whom she loved?
+
+It was on the return trip, too, that he had spoken of their coming
+marriage. "Why can't it be soon, Bettina?" he had said. "Why should we
+wait, you and I?"
+
+She knew that there was no good reason. That a few weeks ago she would
+have been radiant at the prospect.
+
+Yet she told him, nervously, that if he didn't mind, it would be better
+to wait--a little. There were things to do.
+
+And he had acquiesced, because of his masculine ignorance of the things
+which must really be done.
+
+"The big house will be ready," he said, "when you are ready."
+
+As she changed her gown on her return home, Bettina meditated soberly on
+the situation. Diana, when they had talked together, had pointed out
+that the women who married such men as Anthony must be content to make
+sacrifices. "He belongs to the world, dear child," she had said; "you
+must remember that, if you would be happy. It must be your joy to help
+him in his great work."
+
+Bettina was beginning to be a little afraid of the future. It was not
+that she did not love Anthony--why, Anthony was the best man in the
+whole wide world. But everybody expected so much of her, and she was not
+quite sure that she should come up to the full measure of their
+expectations.
+
+As she came down the stairs, Justin was waiting for her.
+
+"Oh, you little beauty," his heart whispered; "you little white and gold
+beauty."
+
+She had twisted her hair low on her neck, and her delicate lace mantle
+fell about her like folded gossamer wings.
+
+"We will sit in the library," she said. "I have had a fire built. It is
+so damp and foggy outside. Sophie said you had to come in early from
+your sail on account of it."
+
+"We came near not coming in at all," Justin told her. "Doris was
+terribly scared. But Mrs. Martens was as cool as possible. It's rather
+risky business outside on such a day. The rocks are like needle points
+under the water."
+
+"I'm a terrible coward."
+
+"You only think you are. When are you going to fly with me?"
+
+"Never--please."
+
+He had placed a chair for her by the fire, and stood leaning over the
+back of it.
+
+"Never is a long time--little sister."
+
+"But I should be afraid."
+
+"Not with me."
+
+Silence.
+
+"Not with me." He came around so that he could look into her face.
+"Would you be afraid with me?"
+
+She knew that she would not. She had not been afraid in the storm. But
+these things were not to be told.
+
+She did not meet his eyes, but shook her head.
+
+He was struck by her troubled look.
+
+"Tired--little sister?" he asked.
+
+Her lips quivered. "Very tired."
+
+His heart yearned over her. She seemed such a little thing in that
+stately room with its high ceilings, its massive furniture, its
+book-lined walls. The only light came from the fire, and from a silver
+lamp which hung over Diana's desk. On the table near Bettina was a bowl
+of pink hyacinths, which filled the room with the fresh fragrance of
+spring.
+
+He was conscious of these things, however, only as a setting for her
+beauty. And he was more than ever conscious of his desire to place
+himself between her and the world which might hurt her. "Let me help
+you," he said, earnestly. "Don't you know that my only desire is to
+serve you?"
+
+She considered him, wistfully. "It's dear of you to say that."
+
+He sat down, leaning toward her.
+
+"It isn't dear of me. It isn't even good of me. It's simply
+self-preservation. Don't you know, can't you see that I have only one
+thought--your happiness; only one wish--to be always near you?"
+
+There was no mistaking the significance of his flaming words.
+
+She shrank back. "Oh, you must not say such things."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because. Oh, you called yourself my friend."
+
+"I am more than that," he said, steadily. "I am your lover."
+
+"Please--oh, please."
+
+She began to sob like a little child. "Oh, big brother," she told him,
+"you have spoiled everything."
+
+He knelt beside her chair. "How have I spoiled things?"
+
+"I wanted you for my friend."
+
+"I am your friend, dear one."
+
+Very still and pale she fought against the sweetness of the truth he was
+forcing upon her.
+
+"Please--go away," she whispered.
+
+He rose to his feet. "I shall not give you up."
+
+She rose also, a frail little thing in her floating draperies, and laid
+her hand lightly on his arm.
+
+"There are things which I cannot tell you. But I need a friend. If you
+care for me you'll let me be your--little sister; you won't trouble me
+by saying such things as you have said--to-night."
+
+He tried with all the strength of his young manhood to hide his own hurt
+and meet her need.
+
+"I could kill myself for making you cry. I'm going to be good now.
+Really and truly your good big brother."
+
+She glanced up at him with charming shyness.
+
+"I'll forget the things that you have said to-night--if you won't say
+them again."
+
+"I shall not tie myself to an impossible promise," he repeated, "but I
+am going to tie you to a promise."
+
+"Me?" She faced him.
+
+"Yes. Oh, see here," boyishly, "I brought something for you to-night. I
+have noticed that you don't wear rings, but I want you to wear this." He
+opened his hand and showed her, lying on the palm, a little silver ring.
+"It's just a simple trinket that my sister wore as a child. I'd like to
+think that it would tie you to me always--for remembrance. I had hoped
+that you would let me give you another some time. But this--why, you
+can't object to wearing it--and it would mean a lot to me if you
+would----"
+
+Her slender fingers touched it. "How sweet of you to think of it----"
+
+"Then you'll wear it?"
+
+"Yes--because you are--my friend."
+
+He took her hand in his and fitting the slender band first on one finger
+and then on another found a place for it at last on the little finger of
+her left hand.
+
+"With this ring," he said, softly, "I take you always--for my
+friend----"
+
+Then he stood looking down at her. "What a lovely little thing you are,"
+he said. "You're so tiny that I could pick you up and carry you off, yet
+I tremble when I touch your hand."
+
+She drew a quick short breath.
+
+"You aren't to say such things to me--you know."
+
+"I'll be good."
+
+She knelt down like a child on the hearth-rug, and held her hand forward
+so that the light of the fire might shine on the silver circlet.
+
+"Why, it's engraved," she said, "with two hearts."
+
+"Yes," he said; "your heart and mine."
+
+As she bent forward, the thin chain which she wore about her neck swung
+forward from among the laces of her gown, and, "tinkle, tinkle," sounded
+the chime of the flashing rings which Anthony had given her.
+
+Justin saw her catch at them, saw her look of frightened appeal as she
+thrust them hurriedly back into their hiding-place.
+
+She rose slowly from the rug; slowly she took the little silver ring
+from her finger; slowly she handed it back to him.
+
+"Please, I must not wear it," she said, with a break in her voice. "I
+must give it back to you--my friend."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+IN WHICH BETTINA FLIES
+
+
+In the clear days which followed, Justin gave his undivided attention to
+flying. Not once did he see Bettina. Not once did he join the party of
+young people of which he had been the leading spirit.
+
+In vain did Bobbie formulate enticing plans.
+
+"We'll go to Cat Island with Captain Stubbs, fish all day, and have
+chowder on the rocks."
+
+There had been one glorified fishing trip for Justin with Bettina. He
+wanted no other.
+
+"I've wasted enough time," he said shortly. "I came here to practice
+flying, not to do social stunts."
+
+Sara urged him also. "You haven't played a set of tennis with me since
+you came up," she complained. "Of course I know you're simply crazy over
+Betty Dolce, but that needn't cut me out entirely. I thought my
+friendship meant something to you, Justin."
+
+"It does," Justin told her, honestly, "but I'm not in a mood for
+tennis, and as for Betty Dolce, I haven't seen her for a week."
+
+Sara was cheered by his statement. If his absorption was simply in his
+flying machine, she could wait. Men always returned finally from
+machines to femininity.
+
+So Justin flew and flew, looking down at times upon the tops of the
+houses in the quaint coast towns, at other times having beneath him and
+above him blue sea and blue sky.
+
+And everywhere he went, he knew that people were craning their necks and
+crying out in wonder, for in this part of the world, at least, such
+aerial craft were rare visitors.
+
+And when he grew tired of great heights, he would let his shining ship
+slide down the air currents until it touched the water; then like a
+mammoth aquatic bird it would swim the surface, and the sailors on the
+big yachts would lean out over the sides and hail him, and the motor
+boats would follow him, until, at last, growing impatient of their close
+observance, he would rise again, higher and higher in the golden haze;
+earth would be left behind, and he would be alone with his thoughts.
+
+And he thought always of Bettina.
+
+He thought of her as he had first seen her, in the shadowy room, with
+her shabby black dress and her white and gold beauty. He thought of her
+as she had come toward him under the lilacs, a flower among the flowers.
+Again he saw her dancing, like a wraith, in the moonlight; he saw her,
+in the little blue serge frock and shady hat, measuring him with her
+cool eyes; and again, laying plates on the flapping cloth with white
+hands, or racing with him against the wildness of the storm. He saw her
+with her fair wet braids hanging to her knees, and her slender fingers
+twisting among the gold. He saw her with the light of the harness-room
+fire upon her as she promised to be his friend.
+
+But most of all he saw her as she had been that last night in the great
+library, frail and white in her floating draperies.
+
+"You have spoiled everything," she had said.
+
+How had he spoiled everything?
+
+In one moment he would resolve to have it out with her. In the next he
+would plan to go away, to give her up, to forget her.
+
+A few weeks ago he had not known her. He had liked many women, but had
+loved none. He had been heart-whole and fancy free. And now his life,
+his happiness, all of his future, were bound up in this little pale
+child with the wonderful hair!
+
+Up and up, higher and higher. It was like the flight of an eagle.
+
+And far below, on a porch which overhung the harbor, two women watched
+with beating hearts.
+
+"Oh, why will he do it?" Sophie asked, in agonized tones. "It is so
+dangerous."
+
+Bettina caught her breath. "Somehow I can't think of the danger," she
+said. "He isn't afraid, and to me it seems--very wonderful--as if he had
+wings, and could fly--straight up--to heaven----"
+
+As Justin had thought all that week of Bettina, so she had thought of
+him; every moment of the day, and into the night, the vision was upon
+her.
+
+Again she was held by those mocking eyes, again she was thrilled by that
+mad race in the rain. She saw him as he had been on the night of the
+yacht club dance, with his laughing air of conquest; as he had been in
+the great library, saying steadily, "I am your lover----"
+
+He had gone from her, angry, that night because she would give him no
+explanation of her refusal to take the silver ring.
+
+"I cannot, I cannot," she had repeated.
+
+He had caught hold of her hands. "You are not a flirt," he had said;
+"you are too sweet and good for that--but what do you mean by your
+mysteries----Oh, why can't you tell me the truth?"
+
+She had looked at him, dumbly, and he had rushed away, leaving her
+unforgiven.
+
+She had written at once to Diana, asking to be released from her promise
+to keep her engagement secret. "People ought to know," was the reason
+she gave.
+
+She had also telephoned to Anthony. She wanted to see him. To tell him
+that she would marry him as soon as he wished. That would be the
+solution. Then Justin would understand, and would forgive her.
+
+She felt that more than anything in the whole wide world she wanted
+Justin's forgiveness.
+
+Anthony had come, and they had gone into the library where she had
+talked with Justin, and Anthony, preoccupied and silent, had placed a
+chair for her, and had stood where Justin had stood. And she had
+shivered and had begged, "Sit down where I can see you."
+
+He had taken the chair opposite her, and suddenly she had surprised
+herself and him by coming over to him, and slipping to her knees beside
+his chair, and sobbing with her face hidden.
+
+He had lifted her in his arms, and had soothed her like a child. "What
+is it, dear heart?" he had demanded.
+
+And, like a child, she had answered:
+
+"Oh, please, let's get married right away----"
+
+She had explained haltingly that she had been lonely since Diana went
+away, and unhappy. She--she missed her mother--and Diana's house wasn't
+her home. Sophie was dear, but, oh, it would be much better to be
+married as soon as she could get ready.
+
+"And how soon will that be?" gravely.
+
+"In a month. I think everybody should be told now."
+
+He agreed. "Perhaps it should have been announced at once, but Diana
+seemed to think that it was best to wait."
+
+"Diana doesn't know--everything."
+
+"No, but she is wise in many things."
+
+"Anthony?"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"When we are--married, will you and Diana be just as good friends?"
+
+"I hope that we may----"
+
+Something in his tone had made her look up and say quickly, "Oh, I
+_want_ you to be friends. You didn't think that I was jealous--of
+_Diana_?"
+
+He had thought she might be. If she knew the truth she would surely have
+a right to be. But she did not know the truth.
+
+"Why did you ask?" he probed.
+
+"Because," feverishly, "it doesn't seem right, does it, that just
+because a man and a woman are married they should never have any men or
+women friends? There's Bobbie, for example--and--and Justin--I shan't
+have to be just your wife, shall I? I can have them for friends?"
+
+"Of course." Yet even as he said it he wondered if he would care to have
+her allegiance divided--as his was divided. Oh, wise Diana, who had
+refused to be what she had no right to be, what he would not want his
+own wife to be, when once she was bound to him--the dear friend of
+another man.
+
+"You and I," he said, "must try to be all in all to each other." Then
+after a pause, "Do you really love me, child?"
+
+"Oh, yes." Again she drew a sobbing breath.
+
+"I am such an old fellow," he said, in a troubled way, "and you are
+made for bright things and gay things. I wonder if you will be happy
+with an old tired fellow like me----"
+
+In her simplicity she believed that his appeal was that of love, and out
+of the gratitude which she felt that she owed him she tried to respond.
+
+"Oh, I do love you," she whispered, "and when we are married--we shall
+be happy----"
+
+Presently she tugged at the thin chain about her neck, and brought forth
+the rings.
+
+"After this I shall wear them," she said, "for all the world to see."
+
+When Anthony went home he answered Diana's letter. He had sent her
+flowers on the day that she had left--her favorite violets and valley
+lilies. Beyond that he had made no sign.
+
+But now he wrote:
+
+
+  "OH, DEAR WISE WOMAN:
+
+  "During all the days since I received your letter I have not been able
+  to see things as you wanted me to see them. I have raged against Fate,
+  and have been pursued by Furies. I have shut myself away, as far as
+  possible, from the world. At one moment I have doubted your love for
+  me; at the next, I have resolved to follow you, play cave man, and
+  carry you off.
+
+  "I have read and reread your letter, trying to find some weakness to
+  which I could appeal--but I could find none. But finally, as I read,
+  one sentence began to stand out: 'We loved those who died--fighting.'
+  When I got into the swing of that thought it stirred me. I am going to
+  live--fighting--perhaps I shall die--fighting----
+
+  "To-day Bettina has told me that she will marry me in a month. She
+  says that she has written you that it is best that people should know
+  at once. And I think that it is best. I shall try to make her happy,
+  but if I conquer life, if I ever do any great thing or good thing or
+  wise thing, it will be because you have shown me the way.
+
+  "You say, 'When we are old, we can be friends.' How I shall welcome
+  old age, Diana! May the years fly swiftly!
+
+  "ANTHONY."
+
+
+Having squared himself thus with the inevitable, Anthony, a little
+grayer, perhaps, a little more worn and worried, took up life where he
+had left off before Diana came home from Europe.
+
+He had seen nothing, of late, of Justin, except as he had glimpsed him,
+now and then, in the air.
+
+But on the morning on which Bettina and Sophie had watched the flight
+from their porch he came upon the young aviator, near the sheds,
+standing in the midst of an eager group of young folks, adored by the
+girls, envied by the boys.
+
+Amid the clamor of voices he caught the question, "Are you going up
+again this afternoon?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then, over their heads, Justin saw Anthony.
+
+"Bring Betty Dolce up this afternoon," he called, "and I'll show you
+through the shops. There are four ships beside mine in the sheds, and
+they'll be sent out to-morrow. You and she may never have a chance to
+see so many together."
+
+Anthony agreed, and called up Bettina.
+
+She assented eagerly. To-day, then, Justin should see her rings. He
+would ask for an explanation. She would tell him,--and he would
+understand. When he knew that she belonged to Anthony he would forget
+that he had wanted to be anything but her friend, and things would be as
+they had been before.
+
+So, knowing nothing of the hearts of men, she argued in her innocence.
+
+When she saw Justin, she felt that even through her gloves he must see
+the rings. But his eyes were on her face, and she burned red beneath his
+glance.
+
+On an impulse he had asked her. If Anthony brought her, he should see
+her, talk to her. That, for the moment, would give his heart respite
+from the pain which gnawed it.
+
+In the dimness of the great sheds Bettina flitted silently like a white
+moth from place to place. She left the conversation to Justin and to
+Anthony. When Justin made explanations she seemed to listen, but she did
+not look up.
+
+As a matter of fact, she heard not a word. Her mind was on her rings.
+She began to take off her gloves, slowly; dreading, yet craving the
+moment, when Justin should look at her hands.
+
+But he was still explaining to Anthony: "These pontoons do the trick. An
+aeroplane simply flies. But the hydro-aeroplanes fly and swim, and
+that's what makes them so safe when there's water to cross."
+
+As he touched the delicate wires of the framework they gave forth a
+humming noise. "When you're up in the air," he said, "it sounds like the
+crash of chords."
+
+Bettina's gloves were off now. The big diamonds on her left hand seemed
+to catch all the light in the dim room and to blaze like suns!
+
+But Justin was thinking only of Bettina's eyes under her drooping veil,
+and of her cheeks which burned red, and of her lips which were closed
+against any speech with him.
+
+They went on to the last shed, which was open, and from which a track
+descended into the water.
+
+Poised there, in the half-darkness, like a bird at rest, was another
+ship, ready for flight.
+
+"This is mine," said Justin; "the 'Gray Gull.' I wanted to call her 'The
+Wild Hawk,' but changed my mind. Do you remember Kipling's
+
+    "'The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky,
+        The deer to the wholesome wold,
+      And the heart of a man to the heart of a maid,
+        As it was in the days of old'?"
+
+"It is one of Diana's favorites," said Anthony. But Bettina said never a
+word.
+
+And just then a boy came to say that Dr. Blake was wanted at the
+telephone.
+
+"It's a hurry call," Anthony came back to tell them. "Would you mind
+walking home with Bettina, Justin?"
+
+Would he mind? Suddenly all the stars sang!
+
+The moment that Anthony's back was turned Bettina felt a frantic desire
+to hide her rings. What would Justin say when he saw them? With Anthony
+there she had felt brave. But now--she turned the rings inward and began
+hastily to put on her gloves. Oh, to-night, after she reached home, she
+would write Justin a prim little note and tell him of her engagement!
+That would be better, of course! She should have thought of it before!
+
+Crashing across her trembling decision came Justin's demand.
+
+"Look here. Why can't you fly with me now? Just a little way, low over
+the harbor? Come----"
+
+It seemed to her that between them was beating and throbbing darkness,
+out of which his eager eyes said, "Come."
+
+"Oh, no," she protested, with dry lips. "Anthony wouldn't like it."
+
+"What has Anthony to do with it?" He had taken her hands in his and was
+crushing them. The rings cut and hurt, but she made no sign; she only
+looked at him large-eyed, and said, not knowing what she said, "He has
+nothing to do with it----"
+
+"Then come----"
+
+She was conscious that he was taking the pins out of her big hat. That
+he was winding her white chiffon veil, nun-like, about her head, so that
+her face was framed. And within this frame glowed her hot cheeks and
+questioning eyes.
+
+"Come," he said, again, and lifted her to her seat and fastened her in,
+and took his place beside her. He whistled, and two men came, and the
+buoyant ship slid down the track toward the water; the big propeller
+waved for a moment its octopus arms, then started with a mighty roar.
+
+For a moment they swam the surface, then, light as a bird, the "Gray
+Gull" soared.
+
+Up and up, with the white yachts in the harbor just beneath them, with
+the gold of the sunshine surrounding them; and out of it his face
+bending down to her.
+
+"Are you afraid?" he asked, as he had asked in the storm.
+
+And she, with her cheeks still burning hot, looked up at him and
+laughed.
+
+"Afraid--with you? Oh, Justin, Justin, I could fly like this--forever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+VOICES IN THE DARK
+
+
+Captain Stubbs' cottage was one of the show places of the town.
+Built before the Revolution, it was of typical English rural
+architecture--one-storied, with a square chimney, and with a garden
+which made it the delight of artists who came from far and near to paint
+it; in the spring crocuses starred the borders, violets studded the lawn
+with amethyst, pale irises and daffodils, narcissus and jonquils stood
+in slim beauty. Later came sweet peas, and the roses followed, hiding
+with their beauty the weather-beaten boards. The late summer brought
+nasturtiums in all their richness of orange and bronze-brown, and in the
+fall, the dahlias blazed.
+
+The captain lived alone, attending to his domestic affairs in a fashion
+which was the envy of less spick and span housekeepers. He would not
+have his home invaded by prying folk, but to his invited and welcome
+guests he would show his carved ivories, his embroideries, heavy with
+gold, his dragon-encircled jars and vases. Everywhere was the charm of
+shining neatness, and flowers were everywhere.
+
+"I think I should have looked for a wife," the captain had told Bettina
+and Miss Matthews one day when they had lunched with him, "if it hadn't
+been for my flowers. I don't need a wife to cook for me. I'm a better
+cook than most women. And I don't need a wife to mend my clothes,
+because every sailor can handle a needle. And I don't need a wife to
+keep the house clean for me--there isn't any woman on earth that makes
+things shine like a man who has been taught to rub brasses and scrub
+down decks. What I'd need a wife for would be to make things pretty, and
+to look pretty herself. But Lord, I ain't the kind to attract a pretty
+woman--and so I just gave it up."
+
+A faint glimmer of resentment had shone in Miss Matthews' eyes. "I guess
+most women are kept so busy that they haven't time to think about their
+looks."
+
+"Well, if I had a wife," the captain had said, "I'd like to have her
+wear bright things. My mother had dimity dresses--there was a pink one,
+like a rose, and a green one that looked like the young grass in the
+spring, and there was one that made me think of forget-me-nots, or the
+sky when there isn't a cloud in it."
+
+Bettina had smiled at him. "How pretty your mother must have been."
+
+"It wasn't that she was so pretty; it was her soft, quiet ways, and
+those bright-colored roses. And I've been looking for that kind of woman
+ever since."
+
+"If your mother," little Miss Matthews had told him, "had lived in this
+day of shirt-waists and short skirts, she'd probably be wearing high
+collars and sad colors with the rest of us."
+
+The emphasis with which the little lady had offered her opinion and the
+flush on her face had made Bettina look at her with awakened eyes.
+"Why--I believe she likes him. She'd be really nice-looking if she'd fix
+her hair----"
+
+To-day, as Miss Matthews stopped for a moment at the captain's gate to
+admire his sweet peas, she was not even "nice-looking." She was pale and
+thin, and had a hoarse cough.
+
+"I'm going home and to bed," she said. "I took cold that day in the
+rain, captain, and it hasn't left me since, and I took more cold
+yesterday, going to school without my overshoes."
+
+"You come right in, and I'll make you a cup of tea," said the captain,
+hospitably. But Miss Matthews refused, wearily.
+
+As she turned away, however, Mrs. Martens came to get the flowers which
+were the captain's daily offering for Diana's table, and the little man
+extended a beaming invitation to both of them.
+
+"You pick your posies," he said, "and I'll get some tea for you and
+bring it right out here. You make her stay, Mrs. Martens; she needs a
+rest."
+
+Sophie smiled at the little teacher. "You ought not to be out at all,"
+she said, sympathetically.
+
+"School closes in four days," explained little Miss Matthews; "after
+that I think I shall fall down and die, but I've got to keep up until
+then."
+
+As the two women stood there at the gate together, they presented a
+striking contrast: Sophie in her black, modish garments, with the look
+upon her face of the woman who has been loved, and who has bloomed
+because of it; Miss Matthews, a faded shadow of what she might have been
+if love had not passed her by.
+
+"How's Betty?" Miss Matthews asked, as she sat down on a bench on the
+little covered porch, and watched Sophie's slender fingers pull the
+sweet peas.
+
+Sophie straightened up. "I'm worried about her," she said. "She and
+Anthony Blake went to see the air-ships, and I had a telephone message
+from Anthony that he had had a hurry call, and that Justin would look
+after Betty. That was two hours ago, and Betty hadn't returned when I
+left to come here----"
+
+Captain Stubbs, appearing with a big loaded tray, gave important
+information.
+
+"Did she have on a white dress?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then she's gone flying with Justin Ford."
+
+"What?" Sophie stood up, and all the fragrant blooms fell at her feet.
+"Oh, surely he wouldn't take Betty up with him. It would be dreadful."
+
+"Now, don't you worry," said the captain; "he ain't goin' to let a hair
+of her head get hurt--he's daffy over her."
+
+"Daffy?" Sophie stared.
+
+"Yep." The captain set his tray on the rustic table. "He and that Betty
+child went with me and Miss Matthews for a day's fishin', and at first
+we didn't notice anything, but after a while we began to open our
+eyes--and, well, we ain't blind, are we, Miss Matthews?"
+
+Miss Matthews, drinking her tea thirstily, took up the captain's story.
+"It rained, and the captain and I wrapped up and stayed by the boat. But
+those young folks ran off, and he was helping her along, and she was
+looking up at him--and--everybody knows what's going to happen when two
+people look at each other that way."
+
+"And if they are flying," the captain chuckled, "they're probably as
+near heaven as it's possible to be this side of the pearly gates."
+
+But Sophie would not treat the subject lightly. "It's bad enough for a
+man to fly," she said, "but he had no right to take that child up with
+him. Where did you see them, captain?"
+
+"I was standing on those rocks out there, and I saw him rise up over the
+harbor. I could see that he had someone with him, so I went in, and got
+my glass, and sure enough, there she was, all in white, with a white
+veil wrapped tight about her head."
+
+"Which way did they go?"
+
+"Straight out beyond the harbor, and up toward Gloucester way--but don't
+you worry, Mrs. Martens; they'll be back before they know it."
+
+"But I do worry," Sophie declared, "and I shall certainly tell Justin
+what I think of his foolhardiness."
+
+"Well, you take your tea," said the captain, soothingly, "and I'll call
+up and see if they have come in."
+
+Taking tea with the captain meant the tasting of many strange and
+wonderful flavors. The little man had clung to all the traditions of his
+seagoing forefathers, who had brought back from the Orient spicy things
+and sweet things--conserved fruits and preserved ginger, queer nuts in
+syrup, golden-flavored tea, and these he served with thick slices of
+buttered bread of his own making.
+
+"You might have had a lobster," he said to Sophie, "if it hadn't been so
+near your dinner time. I've got 'em fresh cooked."
+
+But Sophie shook her head. "I like your sweet things better. Bobbie and
+I are the ones who don't like lobster. He says that I'm a sort of oasis
+in a desert of shell-fish."
+
+"He's got a nice boat," said the captain, "and he's got a nice girl. I
+like Doris."
+
+Sophie's mind went back to Bettina. "Oh, will you telephone, please,
+captain?"
+
+The captain came back with the news that nothing had been seen of the
+"Gray Gull," but that there was no need to worry, as the day was
+perfectly calm, and that, as he had Miss Dolce with him, he would
+certainly not fly high.
+
+Sophie refused to be comforted. "I shall tell Anthony," she said; "he
+must speak to Justin."
+
+"I don't see what Blake's got to do with it," said the blunt captain;
+"young Ford may tell him to mind his business----"
+
+Sophie's head went up. "Dr. Blake is Bettina's guardian," she said, "and
+if Justin resents his interference, I shall certainly be much
+disappointed in Justin."
+
+Miss Matthews bristled. "You ought to have seen the care he took of her
+that day in the rain. I shall never forget the sight of those two young
+creatures running up the hill--the captain said then he had never seen a
+prettier pair."
+
+In the midst of her worry Sophie felt an insane desire to laugh. Was
+this tragedy only or, after all, a comedy? If Betty loved Justin? Her
+imagination could scarcely compass the consequences of this possibility.
+
+Sophie walked home with Miss Matthews, and, returning to Diana's, met
+Sara half-way.
+
+"Is Bettina flying with Justin?" Sara asked, abruptly.
+
+"Captain Stubbs says that she is. I am very much displeased with Justin.
+It is really unpardonable that Bettina should be subjected to such
+danger."
+
+"She didn't have to go if she didn't want to," said Sara, sharply, "but
+she's crazy about him----"
+
+"My dear----How do you know?"
+
+"Anybody can see it. And I guess it's the real thing this time with
+Justin."
+
+The wistful expression on the sharp little face touched Sophie's kind
+heart.
+
+"It's hardly likely. They have known each other for such a short time."
+
+"Time has nothing to do with love," said the sophisticated Sara. "A man
+and a girl can meet and love in a week and live happy ever after. Oh,
+yes, they can. And they can know each other all their lives and be
+perfectly miserable. Dad and mother grew up together, and you've heard,
+Mrs. Martens, what a life they lived."
+
+The story of the unhappiness of Sara's parents was common property. Yet
+it hurt Sophie to see the hard look in the girl's eyes.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "everything depends on the amount of
+affection which two people give each other--time doesn't count."
+
+Sara was digging the point of her parasol into the sand. "I've never
+seen anything like it with Justin. Why, he's _never_ asked any woman to
+fly with him. And when I looked up a while ago, and saw that he
+had--her--I knew he wouldn't have--asked her--if he hadn't--cared----"
+
+"Perhaps we are making things more serious than they really are," Sophie
+said. But as the two women walked on together, her mental disturbance
+continued. What if Miss Matthews and Sara had spoken the truth? How
+would it affect Bettina--how would it affect--Diana?
+
+"I can't quite understand what all the men see in her," Sara was saying.
+"Of course she's a beauty. But she's so little and white--and she
+doesn't seem so terribly clever----"
+
+"There's a charm she has inherited from those sleepy Venetian ladies,
+who only waked now and then to flash a glance at some man--and hold him
+captive. Those beauties were without conscience. But Bettina has a
+Puritan streak in her which she gets from her mother--that's what makes
+her such a fascinating combination, Sara. She's like a little nun; yet
+one feels instinctively that back of that calm exterior there is force
+and fire."
+
+Sara nodded. "I know. Men don't like the obvious. That's why so many of
+us American girls fail to inspire grand passions. We have no
+surprises--no high lights or shadows--it's all glare----"
+
+"I'm not sure, my dear, but that, in the long run, such women make men
+happier than the other kind. In this practical world there's little room
+for varying moods."
+
+"If Justin marries Bettina," said Sara, "they'll live on rhapsodies."
+She drew a quick short breath. "There won't be any commonplaces. They're
+both made that way. It will be all romance and roses----"
+
+"My dear--aren't we taking things a bit for granted?"
+
+"You'll see. You haven't watched them as I have."
+
+They had reached Diana's house, and Sophie asked Sara to come in.
+
+"I can't. It's getting late and I must dress for dinner----"
+
+"Some other time then, dear?"
+
+"Yes--I shall love it." Then, with some hesitation, "I'm afraid I've
+said more than I should----"
+
+Sophie bent and kissed her. "Not a bit. I'm a perfect keeper of
+confidences--and not a soul shall share what you've told me----"
+
+Delia met Mrs. Martens in the hall.
+
+"Dr. Blake's on the porch," she said, "and he's asking about
+Bettina----"
+
+"Hasn't she come?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What time is it, Delia----"
+
+"Half-past six----"
+
+"Of all the mad things to do," said Anthony, as Sophie went out to him.
+"I shall certainly call Justin to strict account--for asking her----"
+
+"She shouldn't have gone," Sophie said. "I can't imagine how he induced
+her. She's such a little coward."
+
+"They've been away three hours. I went over to the sheds and started a
+motor boat to search for them. They are beginning to realize over there
+that something may have happened."
+
+"Did Justin ask Betty while you were with her?"
+
+"No. He simply showed us around, and said he'd walk home with her. Oh,
+the young fool, the young fool. He can risk his own life if he
+chooses--but he had no right to take--that child----"
+
+The telephone rang, and Sophie, answering, found Justin at the other
+end.
+
+"We're at Gloucester, safe and sound. I'm awfully sorry if you've
+worried, Mrs. Martens. But I could not get to a 'phone before this.
+We'll come back by train, and Betty says you're not to wait dinner.
+We'll get something here. We're all right, really--only sorry if you are
+upset."
+
+"We are very much upset," Sophie told him, severely. "Anthony is here,
+and he is extremely anxious."
+
+"He needn't worry," grimly. "I can take care of her."
+
+Mrs. Martens, explaining the situation to Anthony a few minutes later,
+refrained, tactfully, from giving Justin's exact words.
+
+Anthony dined with her, then went off to see Miss Matthews, who had
+asked him to prescribe for her cold.
+
+"Call me up when Bettina comes," he said, as he left.
+
+Sophie promised, and watched him drive away in his little car. She had
+never seen him so nervous, so irritable. Was this what the thwarting of
+his life would mean--that he would let go of the serenity which had made
+his presence a benediction to his little world?
+
+Or was it really love for Bettina which so disturbed him? Stranger
+things had happened. Diana was away--Bettina was beautiful--Justin was
+in the field to measure lances.
+
+With Peter Pan for company, Sophie waited on the porch for the recreant
+pair.
+
+When they arrived it was very dark, and she could not see their faces.
+But what had made that difference in their voices--that subtle,
+thrilling difference?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+GLORY OF YOUTH
+
+
+When Bettina cried, "I could fly with you,--forever," the light of a
+great joy leaped in Justin's eyes. But he said nothing; he merely set
+his hand more steadily to steering.
+
+And Bettina was content to be silent; to drift on and on in this golden
+world, where there was just herself and the youth with the shining eyes.
+
+Far beneath them several racing yachts seemed flung like white flower
+petals on the surface of the sea; two girls in red coats on the
+club-house tennis courts made glowing spots of color; the crowds of
+people on the rocks, with their heads upturned to view the fairy ship of
+the air, were as formless and as lacking in life and movement as a
+patchwork quilt.
+
+Bettina felt no wonder. Her mood was one of heavenly enchantment; having
+passed the first gate of the great adventure, no small detail could seem
+strange.
+
+If in those exquisite moments she remembered Anthony, she gave no sign.
+Somewhere, perhaps, down there in the darkness, was a weary man working;
+there were sick people; pain was there and suffering. But such things
+belonged to an existence in which she had no part. It was as if she had
+died, and, rising above the earth, looked pityingly on those who still
+struggled and strove.
+
+She had a sudden whimsical memory of a Sunday-school song which had
+appealed to her childish imagination:
+
+    "I shall have wings, I shall have wings,
+          I shall have wings, some day----"
+
+Years ago she had sung it with a half hundred enthusiastic youngsters.
+Her vision, then, had dealt, somewhat hazily, with golden crowns, with
+plumed pinions, and with ultimate bliss; but never had her imagination
+compassed such a moment as this!
+
+Above the noise of the motor Justin was aware of the lilt of her fresh
+young voice:
+
+    "I shall have wings, I shall have wings----"
+
+The humming wires keyed the hackneyed tune to a sort of celestial
+harmony:
+
+    "Bright wings of love, from God above,
+         To bear my glad soul away----"
+
+Justin glanced down at her rapt face.
+
+"Do you like it?"
+
+"It is--heaven!"
+
+As she again took up the little song, he joined in, and they finished
+the last verse triumphantly; then they looked at each other and laughed.
+
+"I used to sing it in Sunday-school," Bettina explained.
+
+"So did I," and these simple sentences, in their uplifted mood, seemed
+fraught with great meaning.
+
+They were beyond the harbor now. Ahead of them and to the right was the
+open sea; to the left, the town, with its church steeples like pin
+points beneath them, its most imposing buildings no bigger than
+mushrooms.
+
+"Are we so very high?"
+
+"Not so high, perhaps, as it seems to you. It is perfectly safe."
+
+On and on they went, leaving the lighthouse behind them, leaving behind
+them the harbor and the town, passing, finally, the great forest through
+which they had raced in the rain.
+
+Then Justin had asked, "Do you remember?"
+
+And Bettina had answered, "Shall I ever forget?"
+
+The gulls circled below them, uttering mewing cries. It was as if they
+protested against the intrusion of this bird man and bird woman in a
+realm which had belonged to winged things since the world began.
+
+They came presently to a long and lonely stretch of beach, above which
+Justin sailed, low, and, relaxing his vigilance for the first time, he
+began his eager wooing--all fire and rapture.
+
+And Bettina trembled--and listened.
+
+It seemed to her that throughout her life she had waited to hear that
+which Justin was saying to her now.
+
+"You were made for me--dear. In my dreams there has always been a girl
+like you--little and white and helpless--but vivid, too, in flashes.
+When I saw you for the first time in that dark room on that rainy day I
+knew that you were--mine. I know I'm not good enough for you. I know
+that if you should ever marry me I should thank God on my knees every
+day of my life. But it isn't conceit which makes me believe that you and
+I have been coming toward each other always. I don't know why you gave
+me back the silver ring. At this moment I don't care--although the other
+night my world went to pieces--but just now, what you said,--and the
+way you said it, that you would fly with me forever,--made me feel that
+all the things I had hoped were true----"
+
+Bettina felt as if their souls were bared. What conventional thing could
+she say which would hide her joy? Her eyes would tell him though her
+lips might not.
+
+As if he read her thoughts he bent down to her. "Look at me," he urged,
+and again, "My dear one--is it, then, really--true?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She knew now that she was Justin's and he was hers until the end of
+time. By all the white wonder of her thoughts she knew it. By all the
+quickened blood in her beating heart. What she had felt for Anthony was
+the affection of an unawakened nature--she had given him gratitude,
+friendship--but between them were the years across which she must look
+somewhat timidly; between them was his sadness, which oppressed her, and
+his profession, which she feared.
+
+But here was youth, which she understood, and romance, for which she had
+longed, and love at white-heat.
+
+Thus, as she soared with Justin, she forgot past promises and future
+judgments, and whispered, "It is true----"
+
+After that they talked in the language of youth and love.
+
+"Do you know how pretty you are?"
+
+"You think that I am pretty because you--like me."
+
+"I think it because I--love you."
+
+The echo of their light laughter went trailing after them as the song of
+a lark trails through the blue.
+
+Softly, at last, Justin brought his shining ship down to the surface of
+a little bay.
+
+Two men at work on the beach came out in a dory in answer to his call.
+
+They were eager and curious, and glad to tow the queer craft into
+shallow water, to make it fast, and to watch it for a time.
+
+"We will walk about for a bit," Justin said to Bettina, "and go back at
+sunset."
+
+Bettina demurred. "It's really late now," she said, with her eyes on the
+eastern horizon, where the first gray haze of twilight was beginning to
+gather.
+
+"Look the other way. There's all the gold of the west, and it won't be
+dark for hours."
+
+"But Sophie will worry."
+
+"She will think you're with Anthony--he's nice and safe."
+
+"Perhaps some one will have seen us, and have told her, and anyhow, I
+must get back for dinner."
+
+"Any one may eat a dinner, but for you and me there may never be another
+moment like this!"
+
+Following a steep path they came presently to a curious and lonely spot.
+Here was an ancient burying place. On a rocky headland, overlooking the
+entrance to the harbor and the wide sweep of the sea beyond, the first
+dead of the colony had been buried; here lay the forefathers of the
+town. Many of the stones had fallen; others stood sturdily where they
+had stood for centuries. Strange old stones they were, of gray slate,
+etched with forbidding symbols of skulls and crossbones.
+
+In one corner was a monument of later erection. It had to do with the
+memory of more than a hundred men who had been lost in a September gale
+off the fishing banks.
+
+Bettina shivered as she read the carved history.
+
+"Oh, how did the women stand it," she said, "to come here to the top of
+this hill, week after week, watching? To wonder and worry and fear. To
+wake in the middle of the night and know that their husbands and lovers
+were out in the blackness and storm. And then at last to see the boats
+coming in, and not know whether the ones they loved were on board--to
+find, perhaps, at last, that they were not on board. How did they stand
+it?"
+
+"As you would have stood it, if you had been one of them----"
+
+"Would I?" wistfully. "Do you think I could be brave and patient?"
+
+"You could be everything that is good and beautiful----"
+
+She did not smile or blush. All the glamour of their flight had fallen
+from her. The old cemetery with its gruesome headstones oppressed her.
+The purple shadows of the twilight seemed to circle the world.
+
+She shuddered and one little hand caught at the sleeve of Justin's coat.
+
+He glanced down at her. "My dear one, what is it?"
+
+Her frightened eyes pleaded. "I--I don't like it here. I'm afraid."
+
+"With me--silly. You weren't afraid up there in the clouds."
+
+"This is--different. It seems down here as if the whole world
+were--dead----"
+
+"You're tired. Look here, I'm going to carry you up this hill."
+
+As he said it, masterfully, she felt herself swept up into his strong
+young arms.
+
+"Put me down!"
+
+He drew his head back to look at her.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I'll tell you in a minute. Put me down."
+
+He set her on her feet, and she stood there, swaying, her lips parted.
+
+At last she said, "I love you," but held out her hand as if to keep him
+from her. "I love you--but I mustn't let you--love me."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because--oh, Justin," she was stripping off her gloves, "oh, I've tried
+to hide these," pitifully, "to hide these from you. I wanted my little
+moment of happiness, too. But now you've got to know."
+
+The gloves were off, and the last rays of the setting sun, striking the
+great jewels, brought fire which seemed to blind Justin's eyes.
+
+He caught her hands in his, roughly. "Who gave them to you?" he
+demanded. "Who gave them to you, Bettina?"
+
+But all his doubts and fears had crystallized to certainty before she
+whispered, "Anthony."
+
+"Do you mean that you are going to marry--Anthony?"
+
+She nodded. "He loves me, Justin."
+
+"And you love him?"
+
+Her head went up. "I told you just now that--I loved--you. But I've
+promised Anthony. He asked me that day before I went to Diana's. The day
+after I first saw you. And he was so good, and I was so lonely, that I
+thought that--I cared. I didn't know then what it meant--to care."
+
+His eyes, which had been stern, softened.
+
+"And now that you know," he asked, "what are you going to do?"
+
+She twisted her fingers nervously.
+
+"I don't know," she faltered. "What shall I do, Justin?"
+
+"Oh, my dear," he said, brokenly, "Anthony is my friend. I can't steal
+you--like a thief--in the night----"
+
+Her lips quivered. "I knew that--you'd say that. I am glad--you--said
+it."
+
+He turned away. "If you knew how hard it is for me to say it."
+
+She laid her little hand on his arm.
+
+"If you only won't be angry with me."
+
+He turned back to her. "I am not angry," he said, "only I have been--all
+sorts of a fool."
+
+She sank down hopelessly on a broken stone bench, backed by evergreen
+trees. "You haven't been a fool," she said. "I should have told you. But
+I couldn't. Diana wouldn't let me."
+
+[Illustration: SHE SANK DOWN HOPELESSLY]
+
+"What did Diana have to do with it?"
+
+"She said that Anthony's friends ought to know me before the engagement
+was announced."
+
+"So you and she have talked it over, and Sophie, I suppose--and how many
+others?" His laugh was not good to hear.
+
+"Oh, please. I don't think any of us could have guessed that--things
+would have turned out like this. I didn't dream how you felt and how I
+felt until the other night, when you tried to give me the little ring.
+Then I knew."
+
+"That you loved me?"
+
+"No. That you loved me. I--I didn't know the other until to-day when you
+said--'Come.'"
+
+"Didn't you know that day in the rain?"
+
+"No, oh, _no_. I thought it was just because we were both young, and
+good friends, and happy together."
+
+"And I thought it was because our spirits met--in the storm."
+
+He flung himself down beside her. "To me the whole thing seems
+monstrous. Anthony is years too old for you, even if you loved him. And
+you don't love him."
+
+"Yet I can't break a promise, can I?"
+
+He moved restlessly.
+
+"If you told him, he would release you, of course. But somehow I'd feel
+an awful cad to have Anthony think that I had taken you from him."
+
+"How do you think I should feel?" The color flamed in her cheeks. "Don't
+you know that a woman has just as fine a sense of honor in such things
+as a man?"
+
+As she made a movement to rise, he caught at the floating ends of her
+white veil, and held them, as if he would thus anchor her to himself.
+
+"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I'm afraid I'm too desperately unhappy to
+know what I am saying."
+
+"I know--I'm unhappy, too."
+
+With the fatalism of youth they had accepted their tragedy as final. He
+still held the end of her veil in his hand, but her face was turned away
+from him.
+
+A little breeze came from the west, and there was a dark line of cloud
+below the gold.
+
+"We shall have to go home on the train," Justin said, as he noted the
+whitecaps beyond the bay. "There's too much wind to make it safe for us
+to fly."
+
+"Then we must go now. It is very late."
+
+"I can telephone Sophie from the gatekeeper's house. It's on the other
+side of the church. And I'll telephone to the men to come after the
+hydro-plane."
+
+She assented listlessly, and they walked on.
+
+The church, when they reached it, showed itself an ancient edifice.
+Built of English brick, it had withstood the storms of years. Its bell
+still rang clearly the call to Sunday service, and at its font were
+baptized the descendants of the men who slept in the old cemetery.
+
+As they reached the steps, a man who was digging a grave hailed them.
+"If you and your wife would like to look in," he said to Justin, "you
+can bring the key to me at the gate. I'll be there when you come."
+
+He unlocked the door for them. They heard his retreating footsteps, and
+knew that they were alone. Then Justin spoke with quickened breath.
+"That is as it should be--my wife----"
+
+Out of a long silence she whispered, "Please--we must not--we must
+not----"
+
+"Surely we have a right to happiness----"
+
+She had left his side, and her voice seemed to come faintly from among
+the shadows: "Hasn't everybody a right to happiness?"
+
+"Why should we think of everybody--it is my happiness and yours which
+concerns us--sweetheart."
+
+She did not answer, and, following her, he found that she had entered
+one of the high-backed, old-fashioned pews, and was on her knees.
+
+Hesitating, he presently knelt beside her.
+
+It was very still in the old church--the old, old church, with its
+history of sorrow and stress and storm. One final blaze of light
+illumined the stained glass window above the altar, and touched the bent
+heads with glory--the bright uncovered head and the veiled one beside
+it.
+
+Then again came dimness, darkness--silence.
+
+They were in the vestibule of the church before he spoke to her.
+
+"Did you pray," he asked, "for me?"
+
+"I prayed for all men and women--who love----"
+
+He laid his hands on her shoulders and gazed down at her with all of his
+heart in his sad young eyes. "There must be some way out of this," he
+said. "Surely God can't be so cruel as to keep us apart. Why, we are so
+young, dear one, and there's all of life before us--think of all the
+years."
+
+The look with which she met his glance had in it all the steadfastness
+of awakened womanhood. "You said out there that I could be brave and
+patient. Help me to be brave--big brother."
+
+"Don't," he said, hoarsely; "don't call me that. It's got to be all or
+nothing. But whatever comes, whether you marry me or marry Anthony--I'm
+going to love you always. I'm going to love you until I die, Bettina."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PENANCE
+
+
+Miss Matthews' cold proved to be bronchitis, and Bettina insisted on
+nursing her.
+
+"Please let me," she said to Anthony the morning after her flight with
+Justin. "I suppose I'm in disgrace, anyhow, and this shall be my
+penance. Only it won't be very severe punishment, for I shall love to
+take care of her."
+
+"What good is penance if you aren't penitent? I'm perfectly sure that if
+that young rascal should ask you to go again you'd go."
+
+"It was glorious."
+
+"But very dangerous."
+
+She shrugged. "You do dangerous things every day. Doesn't he, Sophie?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That's different. I do such things to help others."
+
+"And I do them to please myself."
+
+"And to please Justin?" There was an impatient note in his voice. "I
+have told him that he must not ask you again, Bettina."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"He didn't say a word." Anthony smiled at the memory. "He just looked at
+me as if he would like to punch my head, and turned on his heel and left
+me."
+
+"Are you angry with him?" anxiously.
+
+"He's angry with me."
+
+"Oh, dear!" Betty sighed. "Sophie gave me a terrible lecture when I came
+home last night; didn't you, Sophie? And now you and Justin have fallen
+out, and I'm the cause of all the trouble. I'll go and look after Letty
+Matthews, and you can learn to love me when I'm gone."
+
+In spite of the lightness of her tone, there was a quiver in her voice
+which brought both of them to her feet.
+
+"My dear child----!"
+
+"Betty dear----"
+
+Bettina smiled at them with misty eyes. "Please let me go, and when I
+come back everything will be straightened out--and we'll all
+live--happy--ever after----"
+
+Nothing that they could say would change her decision, and they were
+vaguely troubled by it, feeling that she had erected between herself and
+them some barrier of reserve which they could not break down.
+
+Sophie voiced this in a worried way when Bettina had gone up to pack the
+little bag which Anthony was to convey with her precious self to Miss
+Matthews. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said so much, but when she came she
+seemed so unconscious of the dreadfulness and danger that I'm afraid I
+scolded a bit."
+
+"She's such a child! Do you think she will ever grow up?"
+
+"Of course. Diana feels that she has many womanly qualities----"
+
+Anthony, standing by the window, fixed his eyes steadily on the blue
+distance as he asked:
+
+"What do you hear--from Diana?"
+
+"I've a letter." Sophie rummaged among the papers on her desk. "And
+there's a bit at the end that will please you--you know Diana and her
+enthusiasms----"
+
+"Yes, I know----"
+
+His head was still turned away as she opened the thick folded sheets.
+
+"Shall I read it to you?"
+
+"Please."
+
+"She says she likes the hotel, and the people, although she doesn't see
+much of them. But this is the part you'll appreciate:
+
+"'There's a wonderful bit of woodland, Sophie, back in the hills, and
+every day I go there and dream. I thought for a while that I had lost my
+dreams--but now they are coming to me again in flocks--like doves. And
+yesterday came the best dream of all. I have been trying to think what I
+could do with my future, and I've thought of this: I'll build a place up
+here in the forest where Anthony's sick folk can come when they begin to
+get well, and thus I can finish the work which he begins----'"
+
+She paused, as Anthony faced her. "Why didn't she write that to me?" he
+demanded, almost roughly. "Didn't she know it would mean more to me than
+to you--than to anybody----?"
+
+Then with the sudden consciousness that he was showing his heart he
+stammered, "Forgive me--but you know what I think--of Diana?"
+
+Sophie was infinitely tactful. "Of course I know what you think of
+her--she's the most wonderful woman in the whole wide world; and that's
+a great plan of hers--to have a haven for your convalescents."
+
+He made no answer, but just stood very still, looking out, and when
+Bettina came down with her little bag, they went away together.
+
+Miss Matthews in a gray flannel wrapper was shivering over an inadequate
+fire.
+
+"Why aren't you in bed?" the doctor asked.
+
+"Because there is no one to answer my bell, and no one to wait on
+me--and I'm perfectly sure that if I ever let myself go to bed I shall
+die."
+
+"Nonsense," briskly. "I've brought Betty back with me, and she's going
+to stay and see that you're made comfortable."
+
+Miss Matthews' face brightened. "She's the only person in the world that
+I'd have fussing over me."
+
+"I shall stay here and boss you to my heart's content," Bettina told
+her.
+
+"Oh, dear," Miss Matthews sighed rapturously, "how good that sounds.
+I--I want to be bossed. I'm so tired of telling other people what to
+do--that last day at school I thought I should go to pieces."
+
+"Well, you're not going to pieces," Anthony assured her; "you're going
+to bed. And when I come back I shall expect to find you asleep."
+
+Bettina, coaxing Miss Matthews to be comfortable, brushed her hair in
+front of the revived fire.
+
+"What pretty hair you have," she said, as she held it up so that the
+light might shine upon it. "What makes you spoil it by doing it up in
+that tight knot?"
+
+"I don't know any other way," wailed Miss Matthews. "I've never had time
+to be pretty."
+
+"I'm going to braid it," said Bettina, "and by evening it will be
+waved."
+
+Miss Matthews submitted, luxuriously. "It seems so nice to have some one
+fussing over me. I don't believe anybody ever brushed my hair before."
+
+Bettina, having hunted out a box of her own belongings, was trying
+different colored ribbons on the little lady's pale brown locks.
+
+"Do you know, Letty, pink is your color? Yes, it is. Blue makes you look
+ghastly. Now I'm going to tie this twice around your head so that it
+will hide all the tight pigtails--I got that idea from Diana."
+
+As she finished the somewhat elaborate process, there came steps
+outside.
+
+"It's just me," said the voice of the little captain.
+
+Bettina peeped through the door, and announced; "Miss Matthews is sick."
+
+"I know. I met Anthony Blake, and he told me; and what I want to know
+is, can I do anything----?"
+
+"Nothing--thanks."
+
+"Yes, he can," said the hoarse voice of the invalid. "He can come in. If
+he doesn't mind my head, I shan't mind him."
+
+The captain, entering, found Miss Matthews in a big chair, her feet
+covered by a steamer rug, her gray flannel apparel hidden by a white
+wool shawl which had belonged to Betty's mother, and topping all was the
+wonderful head-dress of rose-colored ribbon, beneath which Miss
+Matthews' plain little peaked face looked out wistfully.
+
+"Well, now," said the captain, as he shook hands, "that pink becomes
+her, don't it?"
+
+Miss Matthews blushed. "Betty fixed it."
+
+"I always did like bright things on wimmen," said the captain,
+earnestly, "and I like that pink."
+
+"Of course you do," said Betty; "all men like pink, except those who
+like blue, and now you must go away, for I've got to put my patient to
+bed."
+
+"Don't you cook anything for her," said the captain, as he backed out
+of the door, his eyes still gloating over the rosy-beribboned lady on
+the hearth-rug. "I'll bring you over a bowl of hot chowder to-night, and
+if there's anything else you want, you just let me know."
+
+"Delia will look out for the other things," said Betty; "she's going to
+send little Jane to help me. But we shall be very glad to have the
+chowder."
+
+With Miss Matthews asleep at last, Bettina sat down to write a note to
+Justin.
+
+It was very brief, and began abruptly:
+
+"I am going to tell Anthony. I lay awake all night and thought it out.
+It wouldn't be fair for me to marry him--unless he knew. I'd get to be
+just a shivery shadow, Justin, afraid that he would find that I didn't
+love him--that I loved somebody else.
+
+"But I can never tell him with his grave eyes watching me, so I'm going
+to write, now--to-night. It almost seems as if poor Letty had been made
+a sort of instrument of Providence so that I could be here at this time.
+I couldn't stay at Diana's with everything over between me--and Anthony.
+
+"Oh, Justin, will he ever want to be friends with us again? Will Diana
+ever forgive us?
+
+"I wish you were here. Yet you mustn't be here--not until everything
+is settled. Somehow I don't dare think that we can ever be happy. It
+doesn't seem right to think of it, does it?
+
+"_But I love you._"
+
+She gave her note to the little captain when he came with the chowder.
+
+He brought something beside the chowder. In a square box, smelling of
+sandalwood, was an exquisite kimono of palest pink crepe, embroidered
+with wisteria blossoms.
+
+"It has been lying in an old trunk for years," he exulted, as he shook
+it out before her delighted eyes. "When I saw her," he nodded toward the
+door of the inner room, "when I saw her with that pink ribbon in her
+hair, it just came to me how nice it would be if she had a wrapper or
+somethin' to go with it. And after I got home I went rummagin' around
+until I found this."
+
+"It's lovely," said Bettina; "she'll be simply crazy over it, captain."
+
+"The funny part of it is that I bought it in foreign lands, thinking
+that some day I might get married, and I'd give it to my wife--and now
+I'm givin' it to her."
+
+Bettina sparkled. "Oh," she said, "I believe you're in love with her,
+captain."
+
+The captain sat down in a chair by the fire. "Well," he said earnestly,
+"it's like this. I ain't ever thought of her that way, exactly. It
+always seemed to me that she knew so much, and that I was such a rough
+old fellow. But lately--well, she's been lonely, and she ain't been
+well. And all of a sudden it has kind o' seemed to me that, if I ain't
+smart, I've got a tender heart, and I'd know how to make a soft nest for
+her to live in, and it seems to me that maybe, after all, she might
+throw me in along with all the rest of the reasons for getting married.
+I guess most men are sort of thrown in. Of course the wimmen don't know
+it, but what they get married for is to have a parlor of their own, and
+a kitchen of their own, and somebody to fuss over, and it don't make
+much difference what man they hang their tender affections on, just so
+he provides the kitchen and parlor. Now here's Letty Matthews, all tired
+out with teaching, and this is my time to step in. If she'll ever take
+me she'll take me now, and as soon as she's well enough to hear me say
+it, I'm going to ask her."
+
+"If Letty marries you, it will be because she loves you--she's that
+kind. She'd die sooner than take a man for what he could give her."
+
+The captain's face fell. "Oh, Lord," he groaned, "she won't take me just
+for--myself----"
+
+"You try and see."
+
+"If you can put in a good word for me," the captain urged anxiously,
+"you do it."
+
+"When a man wants to marry a woman," said his young adviser, "there's
+just one way to get her. He must just keep at it, captain."
+
+The captain stood up. "Well, what I want to say is this--I shan't ever
+look at my garden without thinking of her sittin' some day among the
+flowers, I shan't ever eat a meal without thinking how nice she'd look
+pourin' out my coffee in a nice bright dress, and I shan't ever go for a
+day's fishin' without seein' her in the other end of the boat. And every
+time I shut my eyes, I'll think of her wearin' pretty things like my
+mother used to wear. Why, I've got money, that I can't ever use, just
+lying in the bank and waitin' for somebody to come and spend it. And
+while I like my own way of doin' things, I can get a likely man to help
+around the house."
+
+"A man?"
+
+"Yep. I couldn't ever boss a maid. And I ain't goin' to let her"--he
+jerked his head toward the inner door--"I ain't goin' to let her drudge
+and cook and scrub. So I'll get some lad that's been a ship's cook, and
+don't like the sea, and we'll keep things nice for her, and she can fuss
+around the garden and make calls on the neighbors and sit with me when I
+smoke. For wimmen, after all," concluded the wise little man, "are liked
+best by the men when they'll listen. A talkin' woman may catch a man,
+but the kind that holds him is the kind that sits and listens."
+
+He went away after that, and Bettina carried the pink robe to Miss
+Matthews. "Oh, Letty, dear," she said, "just see how gorgeous you're
+going to be."
+
+She opened the box, and let out a whiff of foreign fragrance. But when
+the beautiful pale-tinted thing was laid across the bed, and Bettina had
+explained that it was the captain's gift, Miss Matthews looked solemnly
+at her friend. "If you think I'm going to wear that," she croaked,
+hoarsely, "you're mistaken."
+
+"Of course you're going to wear it."
+
+"Of course I'm not. I--I'd be afraid."
+
+"Afraid--oh, Letty."
+
+"Yes, I would. I've never worn such things. I'd be afraid I'd get a spot
+on it, and it wouldn't come out. Now when a woman like me has a thing
+like that she just lays it away to look at. Then she always knows that
+she has one lovely garment. But if she wears it, she feels that the day
+will come when it will be gone, and then--she won't own one beautiful
+thing in the wide world--not one single beautiful thing."
+
+Bettina bent over her soothingly. "There," she said, "you wear it once,
+Letty, and then, if you wish, you can put it away."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late at night, Anthony came on his last round of calls and urged that
+Bettina should have a nurse to take her place. But Bettina refused.
+
+"I took care of mother alone," she said. "I can surely do this."
+
+Every moment that she was with him she was conscious of the difference
+in her attitude toward him. She had a nervous fear that he might notice
+the change in her, that he might read her heart with his keen eyes.
+
+But he seemed preoccupied, and just before he went away he said:
+
+"You haven't promised me one thing, Bettina."
+
+"What, Anthony?"
+
+"That you won't fly again with Justin. I think I shall have to ask that
+you make it a definite promise."
+
+"Suppose I won't--promise."
+
+"I think you will," he said, in his decided way. "You and I, all through
+our lives, will each have to defer to the wishes of the other. If I knew
+that a thing worried you greatly I am sure I should refrain from doing
+it--I should like to know that you felt that way about me--Bettina."
+
+Something of the old tender quality had crept into his voice. Once more
+they were alone in the shadowy room--but outside now was the darkness of
+the night instead of the darkness of the storm. Perhaps some memory of
+her first impulsive response to his wooing came to him as he took both
+of her hands in his. "There's some barrier between us of late," he said.
+"I'm a plain blunt man, and I don't know what I may have said or done.
+Have I hurt you in any way, child?"
+
+Here was Fate bringing opportunity to her. This was the moment for
+revelation, confession.
+
+But she could not tell him.
+
+She stood before him with bent head.
+
+"You haven't hurt me, but there is something I should like to say to
+you. May I write it--Anthony?"
+
+He put a finger under her chin and turned her face up to him.
+
+"Are you afraid of me--dear?"
+
+"Oh, no----"
+
+"Then tell me now----"
+
+"Please--no."
+
+For a moment he studied her drooping face, then he patted her on the
+cheek. "Write it if you must--but you're making me feel like an awful
+bear, Bettina."
+
+He sighed and turned away.
+
+She put out her hand as if to stop him, but drew it back. Then she
+followed him into the hall, and stood watching him, with the light from
+the old lantern again making a halo of her fair hair. But this time she
+did not go down to him in the darkness. The spell was upon her of a pair
+of mocking eyes, and of a voice which had sung with her celestial
+harmonies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+HER FATHER'S RING
+
+
+It was late the next night before Bettina found time to write a letter
+to Anthony. The town clock had struck ten, and Miss Matthews was asleep
+in the inner room. As Bettina settled herself at her desk there came
+through the open window the fragrance of the sea--the night was very
+still; she could hear across the harbor the beat of the music in the
+yacht club ballroom, and there was the tinkle of a mandolin on some
+anchored boat.
+
+She found it difficult to put on paper the things which she decided must
+be said. Striving to explain she tore up sheet after sheet, then,
+growing restless at her repeated failure, she rose from her desk and
+crossed the room to the cabinet in the corner. In one of the drawers was
+a packet of letters from her mother. They were exquisite in phrasing and
+in sentiment. She wondered if she might not borrow from them something
+of their grace.
+
+As she opened the drawer, her eyes fell on the little carved box.
+Mechanically she reached for it, and touched the spring. Then she stood
+staring down at her father's ring!
+
+The words which she had once said to Diana echoed insistently in her
+ears: "People who can love many times, who can go from one person to
+another, aren't worth thinking about."
+
+Why--she was like her father! He had loved once, and then he had loved
+again--and he had broken her mother's heart!
+
+Shuddering, she flung the ring from her, and it rolled under the
+cabinet. She knelt to grope for it, and, having found it, she shut the
+box. But, like Pandora, she had let out a whole army of evil fancies,
+and they continued to oppress her.
+
+When she went back to her desk she could not write, and at last she put
+away her papers and, wrapping herself in her long white coat, climbed to
+the cupola.
+
+She had slept there many times with her mother. With only the stars
+above them, and on each side a view of the wide stretches of the sea,
+they had talked together, and Bettina had learned the beauty of the
+older woman's nature; having suffered much, she had forgiven everything.
+
+"Your father," she would say, "was like a child seeking the pot of gold
+at the end of the rainbow. He was always looking for romance, forgetting
+that the most wonderful romance is that of the hearthstone and of the
+quiet heart. If he had ever really loved he would have known the joy of
+self-sacrifice, of self-effacement--but he did not love----"
+
+"Love is self-sacrifice." Such had been the verdict of the woman who had
+given all, and who had received nothing. It was a hard philosophy,
+acquired after years of dreariness, and the child had listened and
+absorbed and believed. She had heard nothing of love's fulfilment, of
+the raptures of mutual tenderness. Hence she had been content with
+Anthony's somewhat somber wooing, until that moment when she had drifted
+with Justin through infinite space, and had learned the things which
+might be.
+
+The thought of herself as mistress of Anthony's big house by the sea
+weighed heavily upon her. In those great rooms she would move softly for
+the rest of her days. Anthony would work and read and ponder, and when
+he was at Harbor Light she would sit lonely through the gray winter
+evenings, and the sad summer twilights. But with Justin--oh, the
+limitless possibilities!
+
+With him each day would bring its wealth of vivid experience--there
+would be always the glory of his strength, the uplift of his radiant
+youth!
+
+She put the vision from her. So had her father striven for joy, and he
+had missed all the great meanings of life--and she would not be like her
+father.
+
+The wind was rising, and wailed fretfully above the waters. The stars
+were blotted out.
+
+Bettina shivered. What a dark world it was!
+
+She rose and went down-stairs. Again she sat down to her desk. But this
+time she wrote rapidly, and the letter that she wrote was not to
+Anthony!
+
+When she had sealed and stamped it, she crept down the shadowy stairway,
+thence to the narrow street.
+
+The mail box was at the corner, and she sped toward it; as she came back
+on flying feet, a whisper reached her from the darkness of the garden--a
+whisper which made her heart stand still.
+
+"Betty----"
+
+"_Justin_----"
+
+He emerged from the shadows. "I didn't dare to hope I should see you. I
+ran away from the yacht club dance--and I'm due back there now. But I
+wanted you. I think I must have wished so hard that I wished you here.
+I wouldn't ring for fear I should wake poor Miss Matthews."
+
+His eager whisper met no like response. "You shouldn't have come," she
+said, dully.
+
+He bent down to look at her. Under the light from the street lamp he
+could see the disorder of her fair hair, the frightened look in her
+eyes.
+
+"Dear one--what is it?"
+
+"You mustn't call me that. Did you get my letter?"
+
+"Yes. That's why I came--I knew that by this time you would have written
+to Anthony--that you were--free----"
+
+"But I haven't written to Anthony."
+
+"You haven't? Wasn't that the letter you just mailed?"
+
+"No--I was mailing a letter to you----"
+
+A sudden fear clutched him. "What did you have to say to me?"
+
+"That--oh, Justin, I can't give Anthony up----"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh----We can't talk here. Come up-stairs quietly--we mustn't disturb
+Letty."
+
+She glided ahead of him, and when he came into the shadowy room she was
+standing by the cabinet.
+
+"I've something to show you," she said, and opened the carved box and
+held it out to him.
+
+"It's my father's ring," she said; "he broke my mother's heart--and I
+won't break Anthony's."
+
+Then, in halting sentences, she told him how that day she had come upon
+the ring. She told him her mother's history. And he listened, and
+insisted at last, tenderly, that she had made mountains out of
+mole-hills. But he found her obstinate.
+
+"I must not break my promise," she insisted. "Happiness could never come
+to us."
+
+And, white and wistful in the face of his flaming arguments, she held to
+her determination until he left her.
+
+He had turned away wrathfully, and had reached the top of the winding
+stairway, when he heard her sobbing.
+
+He came back swiftly, and gathered her in his arms.
+
+"You're mine," he said, holding her close. "You know that, Betty."
+
+She drew back from him. "Please," she begged, and so he let her go, and
+made his way blindly out of the room.
+
+Miss Matthews sleeping feverishly, became aware above the sighing of
+the wind of an intermittent sound of woe.
+
+She sat up and listened, put one foot out of bed, then the other, and
+throwing on her old gray wrapper, wavered toward the threshold of the
+door between the two rooms.
+
+By the flickering light of the candle which burned on Bettina's desk she
+could see the little shaking white figure on the floor.
+
+"Betty child," she said in a hoarse whisper, "dear child--what's the
+matter?"
+
+"Oh," Bettina sat up and pushed her hair back from her tear-wet face,
+"oh, I've waked you up. I think I just forgot that there was any one in
+the whole wide world except myself----"
+
+The expression on her tragic face told keen Miss Matthews that there was
+some deep trouble which needed help.
+
+"You come right into my room," she said. "I don't dare stay up another
+minute. But I couldn't sleep if I tried, with a storm coming, and you
+can tell me all about it----"
+
+But when she was settled luxuriously once more among her pillows, and
+with Betty curled up at the foot of the bed, an awkward silence fell
+between them.
+
+At last Betty said, "Justin Ford was here. He's in love with
+me--Letty--but I sent him away----"
+
+"Why did you send him away?"
+
+"Because--because I'm not going to marry him, Letty----"
+
+"Why not----"
+
+"There's some one else. Some one who gave me these--Letty----"
+
+She lifted her left hand with its burden of sparkling jewels.
+
+"Who on earth?" Miss Matthews demanded.
+
+"Anthony."
+
+"Anthony _Blake_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Miss Matthews dropped back limply.
+
+"You'll have to tell me from the beginning," she said, faintly. "I can't
+quite grasp it----"
+
+And Bettina told--of her loneliness, of Anthony's wonderful offer, and
+of her glad acceptance of it.
+
+"Well, your mother would have been delighted," Miss Matthews said; "but
+somehow it doesn't seem right."
+
+"Why not----?"
+
+"Oh, I'd fixed it up that you were going to marry Justin Ford. Captain
+Stubbs and I watched you that day we went fishing, and if ever two
+young things seemed to be in love--well----"
+
+"I--we are in love, Letty."
+
+"Then why in the world are you going to marry Anthony Blake?"
+
+"Because I've promised--and I can't be like my--father. And I can't hurt
+Anthony--not when he has been so good to me."
+
+She was sobbing again, and into the eyes of the little woman who had
+never had a daughter came a look of motherly solicitude.
+
+"Dear child," she said, "if you are just going to marry Anthony Blake
+because you are grateful, don't you do it. No man wants a woman who
+feels that way--and you wouldn't make him happy----"
+
+"But--I've sent Justin away--and he's angry with me. That is why I was
+crying when you found me----"
+
+She was on her knees now beside the bed, and the old maid's arms were
+about her.
+
+"There--there, dearie, you've thought too much about it, and you've come
+to believe that it's the things you like to do which are wrong. And it's
+really the other way."
+
+Miss Matthews was thinking rapidly. There was some mystery. Anthony
+Blake was in love with Diana Gregory. He had always been in love with
+her. No one need try to tell her that he was not, for she _knew_. Then
+why was he engaged to Betty, and why had Diana gone away?
+
+She had a sudden inspiration.
+
+"Listen, Betty, there's just one person who can straighten things out,
+and that person is Diana Gregory. Men aren't any good at a time like
+this. They think with their heads, but women think with their hearts,
+and that's the kind of thinking that you need most now----"
+
+"But, Letty----"
+
+Miss Matthews waved her away. "You go and write to Diana and mail it
+to-night, and then come back and keep me company. I'm afraid of the
+storm."
+
+It was at that very moment that Anthony was also writing to Diana. When
+he had left Bettina he had gone straight to Harbor Light and into a
+little inner office where he was guarded from all intruders by the
+assistant who sat in the anteroom. Not even a telephone could sound its
+insistent note in this place where the doctor gained, in a reclining
+chair, his few brief moments of rest, or where he worked out the
+intricacies of perplexing problems. Now and then he saw a patient there,
+but rarely. Usually he shut his door against all distracting influences,
+and gave his attention to the things which concerned himself alone.
+
+What Sophie had told him about Diana had sent his thoughts flying to the
+wonder-woman up there in the woods. Even when he had talked to Bettina
+he had felt the consciousness of his thought of her.
+
+Out of a full heart he wrote, holding back nothing, and when he had
+sealed and stamped his bulky missive, he, like Bettina, went forth to
+mail it.
+
+As he passed through the garden a sudden gust of wind scattered a shower
+of rose petals in his path. That there were storms in the distance was
+evidenced by the low rumble of thunder and the vivid flashes of light.
+
+It was on nights like this that his patients grew restless--poor
+abnormal things they were, afraid of life, afraid of death, seeing in
+wind and rain and in the battle of the elements the terrors of the
+supernatural.
+
+But the night fitted in with Anthony's mood. He still wore his white
+linen office coat. His hat was off, and his gray hair was blown back
+from his forehead. The salt air exhilarated him. He felt a sudden
+lightness of heart. He wanted to shout like a boy. He had been grave for
+so long--but now his message had gone forth to Diana--to-morrow she
+would read it, and in two short days the answer would come.
+
+He made his way to the beach; the vivid flashes showed the heaving
+blackness of the waters--the waves came in with a sullen roar.
+
+He thought of the night when he had stood there with Diana, and when the
+moon had made a silver track. To-night there was no light--except
+Minot's--like a star. "I-love-you," it said to the lonely man who stood
+there in the darkness.
+
+From somewhere in the garden a voice called him, then a nurse came
+running.
+
+"I saw you go out," she panted; "perhaps you'd better come, doctor--they
+are getting all worked up about the storm."
+
+Thus was his life made up of duty. There was never an uninterrupted
+moment. His strength was always being drawn upon to uphold the weakness
+of others. To-night his whole nature craved the tumult of the wild
+night. Yet he must calm himself to meet the needs of those who leaned
+upon him.
+
+As he turned to follow the nurse, a big car whirled through the gate,
+and there sounded the trilling laughter of girls, the deeper jovial bass
+of young men.
+
+Beneath the brilliantly-lighted entrance of Harbor Light the car
+stopped, and as Anthony came up, Sara and Doris descended with much
+shaking out of filmy dancing frocks.
+
+Sophie, with seeming unconsciousness of the havoc which the rain had
+wrought on her lovely black gown, made a smiling explanation to Anthony.
+
+"Justin and Bobbie tried to get the top up--but something caught and I
+thought we should all be drenched. And then your Harbor Light shone out
+to welcome us----"
+
+Anthony was glad that they had come. He craved the lightness and
+brightness. He seemed suddenly to be one of them again--not a sad and
+somber being set apart. He had a sense of relief in Bettina's absence.
+It was as if her youth and beauty showed the contrast of his age.
+
+He took them up to his sitting-room, then excused himself to make his
+rounds. "I'm going to have something sent up for you to eat--I know what
+slim fare they give at the club on the nights of the dances. I'll be
+with you soon."
+
+While they waited for him Sara played; Bobbie and Doris danced--and
+Justin talked with Sophie.
+
+He looked worn and white, and a line cut deeply into his forehead.
+
+"I owe you an apology," he said, "for yesterday. But I couldn't help it.
+Bettina was so little and lovely--you know I wouldn't harm a hair of her
+head----"
+
+Something in his voice made Sophie lay her hand on his. "My dear boy, my
+dear boy----"
+
+"I'm awfully hard hit," he said, "but she--she's turned me down. I fancy
+it was our last flight together. Do you remember Browning's 'Last
+Ride'--
+
+    "'And heaven just prove that I and she,
+        Ride, ride--together--forever ride----'?
+
+"Well, my heaven will be a place where she and I shall drift through
+infinite space--together----"
+
+He stood up. Sara was coming toward them--a brilliant little figure in a
+flame-colored gown.
+
+"I'm not going to bore you with my worries," Justin said,
+quickly--"but--I--I wish you'd be awfully good--to Bettina."
+
+Sophie carried away with her that night the vision of his tragic young
+face, and before she went to bed she wrote to Diana, and her letter
+ended thus:
+
+"Oh, dearest girl, oh, dearest girl, what have we done, what have we
+done----!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE "GRAY GULL"
+
+
+The morning after the storm Justin went forth, moodily, for his morning
+flight.
+
+He found opposition, however, to his ascension. "Wait until the
+afternoon," was the advice given him; "there's a nasty wind."
+
+He would not listen, but he delayed his departure, preferring to start
+alone, and eventually the other aviators drifted off, and he made the
+"Gray Gull" ready.
+
+Going down to the pier for a last peep at the weather, he was hailed by
+Captain Stubbs.
+
+"I am going to take Anthony Blake out for a day's fishin'," the little
+man said, as his motor boat chugged comfortably within easy talking
+distance. "He telephoned last night that he wanted a day away from his
+work, and I said that the fish would be running after the rain. I'm
+always mighty glad to have him go with me. He's a born fisherman. His
+great-grandfather and mine fished together on the banks, and our
+grandfathers were part owners in the same schooner. But Anthony's father
+went to the city and studied medicine, and his son followed in his
+footsteps, so that's the way the Blake boys got switched off from
+fishin' as a business. But it's in their blood."
+
+"Look here," Justin interrupted, "I want to ask you a question, captain,
+and it's about Anthony. Did you ever think he was in love with Diana
+Gregory?"
+
+"Well," the captain meditated, "I ain't ever thought much about it. But
+Miss Matthews sees a lot, and she told me once that Anthony Blake
+wouldn't ever look at any other woman but Diana, and that Diana was just
+keeping him on the string."
+
+"I can't exactly fancy Diana as that sort of woman."
+
+"Well, it ain't anything against a woman that she don't know her own
+mind," was the captain's philosophical reflection. "Most men don't know
+their own mind when it comes to marryin'. Only the difference is this: a
+man loses his head and asks a girl, and then he wonders if she's going
+to make him happy. And a woman hesitates about sayin' 'Yes,' but when
+she once decides, she sticks to a man through thick and thin."
+
+In spite of his gloom Justin smiled. "Where did you learn it all,
+captain? You are as wise as if you had been married to a half dozen
+wives."
+
+"There's a sayin'," the captain explained, "that a sailor has a wife in
+every port. That ain't true. Sailors as a rule are constant men. But
+they see a lot of wimmen creatures, and they learn that there ain't much
+difference, when it comes to lovin', between a Spanish lady who flirts
+with her eyes, and a Boston lady who flirts with her brain. They're all
+after the same thing, and that's a home, with a big H, and it's a credit
+to them that they are--otherwise we men wouldn't ever know when to
+settle down."
+
+"Yet it's because of a woman that some of us never settle down."
+Justin's young eyes were looking out stormily upon the gray world. "It's
+because of some woman that we wander and are never satisfied."
+
+The little captain gave him a keen glance. "Well, you won't ever have to
+worry," he said; "all you've got to do is to keep at it till you find
+the right woman. That's what that Betty child said to me the other day.
+'Captain, if a man wants a woman, he's got to keep after her until she
+says 'Yes.'"
+
+"Did Betty Dolce say that?"
+
+"Yes--she's a smart little thing."
+
+But Justin's thoughts were not of her "smartness" but of her pathetic
+loveliness. All night her sobs had echoed in his heart. When he had
+driven his gay party home after their stop at Anthony's, he had ridden
+for miles alone in the storm. He had welcomed the beat of the rain in
+his face. He had yearned for some adventure which would shut out that
+vision of the shadowy room.
+
+But no adventure had been forthcoming, and so he had sought his uneasy
+couch, and had tried to sleep, and had risen at the first crow of cocks.
+
+He brought his mind back with difficulty to the captain. "I'm going up
+this morning, captain. I'll wigwag to you and Anthony if you're
+outside."
+
+"Don't you go," the little captain advised earnestly; "this isn't any
+morning to fly. There's all sorts of storms about, and you can't tell
+what minute you'll get into one."
+
+"Didn't you like to sail your ship in a storm--didn't you like the
+excitement of it--the battle with the wind and waves?"
+
+"That's different. I knew my ship was seaworthy. I knew what I had to
+face in an ordinary storm. But you take one of those Chinese typhoons,
+or a hurricane that blew up from the Gulf, and I didn't enjoy it. Not a
+bit. I'd go miles to get out of one, and I learned this, after I had
+looked death in the face a hundred times, that foolhardiness doesn't
+pay. You go slow, and wait for a quiet day."
+
+Justin laughed recklessly. "I'll take my chances."
+
+"Well, there's no fool like a young fool." The little captain started
+his motor with a jerk, and its comfortable chugging was at once changed
+to an angry snort.
+
+Justin did not at once go back to the sheds. He climbed a path which led
+to the adjoining hotel, and made his way to the writing rooms.
+
+The people who lounged on the porches looked at him curiously as he
+passed. Those who had been there longest whispered to the newcomers the
+magic of his name. More than one girl remarked the beauty of the somber
+young countenance, and the strength of the straight young figure.
+
+In the writing room of the big hotel Justin wrote to Diana. It was his
+last hope. He wrote hurriedly, using the elaborately monogrammed house
+paper, and his script was interspersed with dashes, with now and then a
+boyish blot.
+
+When he had finished he went to the desk of the girl in the corridor who
+sold post-cards and magazines, and bought a stamp.
+
+Anthony was delayed, somewhat, in starting out with Captain Stubbs by
+the news that Miss Matthews was worse.
+
+He found her with a high fever, and he also found Bettina in a state of
+agitated apology.
+
+"I'm afraid I talked to her too late. But we--we were afraid of the
+storm."
+
+"She'll be all right in a few hours, but you've got to get some rest.
+I'll send a nurse."
+
+"No--Sophie said she would come--early this afternoon--and then I can
+sleep--and I've had little naps on the couch----"
+
+As he turned to go he stopped and said, with some hesitation: "You
+didn't write the letter to the Big Bear, Betty."
+
+She blushed. "I'm not going to write it."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because--I've changed my mind about it--I've really nothing to tell
+you--and every woman has a right to change her mind."
+
+She tried to say it saucily, but was not successful, and he, vaguely
+relieved, responded, "I'm glad--that you are not troubled," kissed her
+lightly on her forehead, and went away. And she looked after him and
+sighed, and wondered if all the years which stretched before them would
+be as dreary as this.
+
+The arrival of the little captain broke in upon her thoughts. "You give
+her these," he said. "I can't stay a minute. I'm going out with Anthony
+for a day's fishin'."
+
+He rushed away, leaving Bettina with her arms full of pink roses.
+
+She took them in to Miss Matthews. "Letty," she said, "the captain
+brought them. Isn't he romantic? He is making pink your color. I think
+it's dear of him."
+
+Miss Matthews blushed. "I'd surely never have picked out Captain Stubbs
+for the romantic kind, but you never can tell."
+
+"No, you never can tell," Betty agreed, and stood looking idly out of
+the window.
+
+All at once she gave startled attention.
+
+"Letty," she said, "Justin is flying."
+
+Miss Matthews, half asleep, murmured, "Well, I'm glad you're not with
+him," and Bettina, recalled to her obligations to the invalid, answered
+with assumed carelessness, "So am I," and measured out Miss Matthews'
+medicine, and talked no more.
+
+But her heart was beating madly as she followed his flight. He was up
+there--alone. Up there in that wonderful world! Was he thinking of her?
+Was he hearing, again, those celestial harmonies?
+
+To-day there was no sunshine--but as he circled against the background
+of moving clouds her thoughts went to that wild hawk in "the wind swept
+sky."
+
+She knew nothing of the danger. She did not know that, as yet, his
+machine was not perfected to a point where it could brave with immunity
+such weather as was threatened by the brooding sky. She only saw his
+flight--and her hurt heart craved the place which had been hers for a
+few brief moments of rapture.
+
+When at last he was out of sight, she went about her little duties, but
+came back again and again to the window, watching for the time when he
+should reappear.
+
+Anthony and the captain, half-way across the harbor, said things about
+Justin's recklessness, and spoke of the danger.
+
+"Some day he'll get hurt," was the captain's conclusion, "and then he
+won't ever fly again."
+
+"Yes." Anthony's eyes were following the "Gray Gull," which was now
+beyond the harbor and heading for the open sea; growing smaller and
+smaller, it was at last a mere speck on the horizon.
+
+Then the captain and Anthony, having reached a place offshore which
+promised a good catch, put out their lines and entered at once upon that
+ecstatic state of watchfulness which is the heritage of the true
+fisherman.
+
+The relief which Anthony felt from the cares which had oppressed him was
+magical. He was sailor enough to love the swell of the waves and the
+rippling music of the water as it slipped under the anchored boat; he
+was fisherman enough to be thrilled by the chances of capture; he was
+artist enough to gloat over the beauty of the dull morning--the white
+gulls circling overhead, the black rocks sticking their spines above the
+gray sea, a phantom four-masted ship sailing straight toward them out of
+the mists.
+
+And he was man enough to think of the woman he loved, and to forget the
+pensive appealing child in the shadowy room. He had a vision of Diana
+up there in the forest--strong of spirit, wresting from life, even in
+her exile, the things which were worth while.
+
+As they ate their lunch the little captain confided to Anthony the hope
+of his heart. "I'm going to ask Letty Matthews to marry me--I want to
+get her away from that school----"
+
+"Good. I'll dance at your wedding."
+
+"When am I to dance at yours?" the captain demanded, bluntly. "I should
+think it was about time that you were putting your furniture in that big
+house for Diana Gregory."
+
+"Some of the furniture is in." Anthony slurred over the greater question
+by tactfully emphasizing the lesser. "I had my mother's piano sent over
+yesterday, and some of the things for the living-room and library. We
+haven't a place for them at Harbor Light--and then there's the china. I
+wish I could match up some of those pieces of White Canton, captain. I
+wonder if we could make an exchange. I've a lot of Crown Medallion which
+would fill out your set----"
+
+Having thus started the little captain on his chief hobby, Anthony
+breathed a sigh of relief, and went on with his fishing.
+
+The subject of the china sufficed to fill the captain's mind until the
+fish stopped biting, and they decided to go in.
+
+It was just as they began their trip toward the harbor that Justin came
+back.
+
+The wind was blowing now straight from the south, and the "Gray Gull"
+was making slow headway against it.
+
+"Why don't he come down to the water? It's safer," said the little
+captain, anxiously. "There's every sign of a squall----"
+
+But Justin kept on; between him and the harbor was the Neck, with its
+jagged shore line of rocks. He was evidently planning to cross the strip
+of land obliquely, as, in rounding the point to come up the harbor, he
+must get the full force of the wind--
+
+As he sailed over them they caught the strong beat of his motor. It
+seemed, too, that he waved his hand; then he left them behind, keeping
+close to shore and above that jagged line of rocks.
+
+"Oh, the fool," the captain murmured. "Why don't he get away from the
+land?"
+
+The wind came with a mighty sweep; the air-ship gave a backward tilt,
+fluttered for a moment like a bird in a storm--then shot down with
+sickening swiftness!
+
+"His motor has stopped," the captain shouted, "and he's lost control! If
+he strikes the rocks he's done for!"
+
+Down--down! They had one glimpse of Justin struggling to free himself;
+they saw him jump clear, and the big machine crashed on the beach.
+
+It was the little captain who forced his boat to record speed, but it
+was Anthony who went over the side and through the breakers to where
+Justin lay prostrate, half in and half out of the water.
+
+Wet and dripping the doctor bent over the boy, put his hand to his heart
+and felt it beating faintly, then looked at the broken body and said,
+unsteadily:
+
+"There's only a slim chance of saving him. We must get him to Harbor
+Light."
+
+The accident had been seen from the harbor, and as the captain's boat
+shot around the Point with its precious burden, it met other boats
+coming out to meet it, and orders were shouted back and forth, so that
+when the rescuers reached the pier, there was a car ready for that which
+had gone out full of life and strength and which had come back beaten
+and bruised.
+
+The girls on the porch of the big hotel cried in each other's arms,
+hysterically, as the car passed, and talked of the way the young
+aviator had looked in the morning.
+
+But far up in a tall old house, crowned by a cupola, was a girl who did
+not cry. She had seen the "Gray Gull" come down and had guessed at the
+catastrophe. She had fainted away quietly, and lay now on the floor by
+the window with all of her fair hair shaken over her still white face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BROKEN WINGS
+
+
+It was Sophie who found Bettina. She came in quietly, wondering at the
+silence, then growing suddenly afraid she passed swiftly to the inner
+room to discover Miss Matthews still asleep and Bettina in a huddled
+heap on the floor.
+
+She picked the girl up in her strong arms, and carried her back to the
+big room and brought water and bathed her face, murmuring anxiously, "My
+dear, what is it? What has happened?"
+
+And, after a little while, Bettina whispered, "Justin," and then, a
+little louder, "Justin," and coming to the surface through the darkness
+for a third time, she clutched Sophie's arm, and cried, "Oh, is he
+killed? Is Justin killed?"
+
+Holding the shuddering little creature close, Sophie protested: "My
+dear, what is it? What have you dreamed?"
+
+"I didn't dream. Oh, Sophie, I didn't dream. I saw him up in the air,
+and I saw him--fall----"
+
+So it had come. So it came to all men who flew. Every bit of blood was
+drained from Sophie's face. But, fighting for composure, she held out
+such hope as she could. "My dear, are you sure? How did you know?"
+
+"I was standing by the window when he--came down----"
+
+"But there may have been some one to help him--and he was over the
+water--and he can--swim----"
+
+Footsteps were ascending the stairs lightly but hurriedly. The two women
+turned their white faces to the door. Captain Stubbs stood on the
+threshold.
+
+"He's hurt," he said. "Justin's hurt. He's at Harbor Light--and he's
+asked for Betty--and Anthony says that she must come."
+
+In a big room that overlooked the sea lay the bird man with broken
+wings. After that first murmured plea for "Betty" he had showed no sign
+of returning consciousness.
+
+On the floor above him they were getting ready for the operation. Nurses
+and doctors, in ghostly white, had set themselves to various preparatory
+tasks. And presently everything was in readiness for the great Dr.
+Anthony.
+
+He was delayed by a white-faced slip of a thing, whom he led at once
+into his private office, leaving Captain Stubbs outside as a proud and
+patient sentinel.
+
+When he had closed the door, Anthony took the little cold hands in his.
+"He is going to get well, Betty, if my skill can make him. I've got to
+operate at once--and there's a big chance--the other way----" He
+hesitated, then said, gently, "You love him, child?"
+
+"Yes--oh, yes."
+
+"And he loves you--how blind I've been! How much trouble might have been
+saved if I had known."
+
+There was no bitterness in his voice, only a great regret.
+
+"And now," he went on, "I'm going to save him for you, if I can. And
+I've sent a nurse to take care of Letty Matthews so that you can have
+Sophie with you."
+
+He had thought of everything. It came to Bettina then what he meant to
+the world--this great Dr. Anthony--she had hated his mission of
+healing--and the skill which might now mean to her a lifetime of
+happiness instead of unutterable woe.
+
+She tried, faltering, to tell him something of what she was feeling.
+
+"Hush, dear child. You could not know. And now you must be very brave,
+and pray your little white prayers for Justin, and, please God, we shall
+bring him through."
+
+Then he had gone away and Sophie had come, and the dreadful time of
+waiting had begun.
+
+Sophie, who had walked in the Valley of the Shadow with her own beloved,
+knew the right things to say to the child who clung to her.
+
+"Dearest, think of all you will mean to him when he gets well. Why,
+there's never an opportunity for a woman like that of having the man she
+loves dependent upon her--you can do all of the lovely little things for
+him."
+
+"But if he should not--get well?"
+
+"You are not to think of that."
+
+"I must think of it."
+
+"Hush, dear, _don't_. You can't help him or yourself by crying--I know
+how you feel--but think of this. If you should lose him, you will still
+have known love at its best. And you will never be content with a lesser
+thing. Oh, Betty, child, it is the shallow people who ask, 'Is it better
+to have loved and lost than never to have loved?' How _can_ there be
+any doubt? The woman who has not loved is only a half creature."
+
+"I know. Oh, Sophie, it seems such an awful thing to say, but if this
+hadn't happened I should never have been sure that for me there could
+never be any one else but Justin."
+
+Tactfully, the older woman led her on to talk of her doubts and fears,
+and of her terror lest she might deal with love lightly, as her father
+had done. And then Sophie spoke reverently of her own perfect marriage.
+
+"It was during his illness," she said, "that I learned to know my
+husband. I think I had always been a bit selfish. He had seemed so
+strong that I had heaped my burdens upon him. He wanted me to be happy,
+so he withheld all cares from me. But the time came when he knew it was
+not right to withhold such cares. He knew that I was to face separation
+and loneliness, and so he helped me to get ready. Oh, Betty, dear, I
+can't tell you how wonderful he was. He knew that death must come to
+him, and yet he never whimpered. He was a brave soldier going down to
+battle, and not once did he flinch. But gradually he came to lean on me;
+once he cried in my arms--not from fear, but because he must leave me.
+These things are not easy to speak of--but where at first I had merely
+loved, I came to worship. I saw how he had shielded me, and when he left
+me I had the precious memory not only of his care for me--but of my care
+for him--and his appreciation of it."
+
+There was a silence in which not only the "white prayers" of Bettina
+ascended, but the fervent ones of the woman who had suffered and lost.
+
+Then came a nurse with the message, "Dr. Blake wishes me to say that all
+conditions are favorable," and they permitted themselves to hope.
+
+Other people were coming now to Harbor Light--great men from the yachts,
+people from the big hotels, fellow-aviators of Justin's--the townsfolk
+and sailors--children who had worshiped the flying man of the smiling
+countenance.
+
+But no one was shown into the inner office except Bobbie and Doris and
+Sara.
+
+It was in that first moment of her meeting with Bettina that Sara
+blotted out the last vestige of smallness and of jealousy.
+
+She went straight up to the girl whom Justin loved, and put her arms
+about her. "Oh, you poor dear thing," and they wept together.
+
+Then Bettina asked, "How did you know?"
+
+"Everybody knows," Sara said, hysterically. "Did you think you could
+hide it?"
+
+Doris was weeping, too, in Bobbie's arms, and Bobbie's white, set face
+showed what he was feeling for his friend. "Oh, what made him go out on
+such a day--of all the crazy things----"
+
+"I told him not to," said Captain Stubbs, who had kept hitherto in the
+background, "but there's no fool like a young fool, and I said it at the
+time. But it was God's own providence that we were there when he fell.
+And if any one can fix him up it's Anthony."
+
+Bettina heard, and thought of her former fear of this place, which
+seemed now a sacred house of healing. Was she the same girl who had
+railed so bitterly against Anthony's profession? She felt that she
+wanted to tell him how great he was. Why, he was a wonderful man--and he
+was going to save Justin as he had saved others. Daily he fought battles
+with death and conquered. He must conquer now!
+
+Up-stairs in the operating room was being played a game of skill which
+had for its pawns human life and human reason.
+
+The worst trouble lay in the wounds about the head. But there were other
+dreadful complications, and many times in the hours that followed it
+seemed that the game was lost.
+
+All through the tiresome ordeal not once did a muscle of the great
+surgeon quiver. Not once did he show dismay at that which was most
+baffling; not once did he show weakness at that which was most pitiful.
+
+But when at last his great task was ended, his face was worn and gray.
+
+Yet as he went to change his clothes, through the fabric of his
+weariness and of his anxiety ran a thread of joy in the thought that the
+barriers were down between himself and Diana, and that he might love her
+now without reproach.
+
+When at last he descended to his little office, he spoke hopefully. "His
+strength and youth are in his favor--and I'm going to pull him through."
+
+Yet he knew in his heart that he was flinging a defiance at destiny.
+
+He arranged to keep Bettina at Harbor Light.
+
+"Justin might ask for you again," was his explanation.
+
+So Bobbie and Doris and Sara and Sophie went away together, and when
+there was no one else to hear, Anthony said to Bettina, gently, "My
+dear, why didn't you tell me?"
+
+Curled up in a big leather chair, she spoke of her fear of hurting him,
+of being inconstant--like her father.
+
+She seemed such a child in her blue serge suit with its red silk tie,
+and with the shady hat which had been pinned on hastily when the summons
+came. But the things she was saying were womanly things, and for the
+first time since he had known her Anthony perceived the possibilities of
+which Diana had been so sure--this little Betty child, transformed by
+love, would one day be an inspiration and a help to the man she would
+marry.
+
+"If I have hurt you," she said, as she finished, "I--I can only ask you
+to forgive me. If this had not happened, I think I should have--kept my
+promise. But now you know--and you will not want me to keep it."
+
+"No. I do not want you to keep it. Oh, what a tragedy we have made of it
+all. I might have made it so easy for you."
+
+"You, Anthony?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He sat silent for a moment, his fingers tapping the arm of his chair,
+those strong flexible fingers which an hour ago had done such magical
+feats of surgery. Bettina's eyes were held by them.
+
+"I hardly know how to begin; it has to do with--Diana."
+
+"Diana?"
+
+"I love her, dear----"
+
+"Diana?" Bettina spoke, breathlessly. "Oh, and does she love
+you--Anthony?"
+
+"I have always loved her--but I thought I had lost her--then when she
+came back from Europe I found that she was still free--and that--she
+cared. But by that time I had engaged myself to a dear child who really
+didn't love me at all."
+
+"But why didn't you tell me, Anthony?"
+
+"Because, my dear, I thought you might be made unhappy."
+
+To others there might have seemed something humorous in the
+situation--in its almost farcical complications and misunderstandings.
+But these two saw none; the issues were too deep, too serious; death was
+too near in that upper room.
+
+"Was that why--she went away----?" Bettina whispered.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, write and tell her to come back."
+
+"I have written. I wrote yesterday. I saw that you were not happy. I
+felt that I had no right to permit you to marry me when my heart was
+bound up in another woman--as it was bound up in her. I felt that in
+marriage there is something which goes beyond conventional honor. As a
+physician I have seen much of unhappiness--and I could not sanction in
+myself that which I would not have sanctioned in another. So I told
+Diana. I think instinct warned me there was some one else, after your
+flight with Justin."
+
+"And now--if he gets--well."
+
+Anthony stood up. "He shall get well," he said, steadily. "I scarcely
+dare think of the things which are coming to you and to me, dear child.
+But when I think of them my heart says, 'Thank God.'"
+
+If she wept now in his arms, it was as a daughter might weep in the arms
+of a father--there was love between them at last, but it was the love of
+tried friendship, of passionate gratitude on her part, of protective
+affection on his.
+
+When he had quite soothed her, she drew off the sparkling rings. "These
+must go back to you," she said; "some day you must give them to Diana."
+
+He shook his head. "I shall give her pearls. She belongs to the sea,
+Bettina; she's the wife for a man of sailor instincts like myself--we
+love the harbor, and the great lights that are high above it, and the
+little lights that are low--and so I shall give her pearls.
+
+"But you must keep these," he went on; "not to wear on your third
+finger--Justin, please God, shall some day look after that--but to wear
+on your right hand, as my gift to you--for luck and a long and happy
+life."
+
+In the evening they rode over to see Miss Matthews, and found her
+sitting up. "I feel better," she said, "and there's something in the
+air. I want to know why I have a nurse, and why Bettina went away while
+I was asleep?"
+
+"And I want to know," said Anthony, sternly, "why you are out of bed?"
+
+"Because I am better," said Letty Matthews, "there's nothing in this
+world that can cure a person like curiosity--and I had to know what was
+going on."
+
+So Anthony told her, and she wept to think of the fate of the bird man
+with the broken wings.
+
+But she was cheered by the coming of Captain Stubbs. He bore on a tray
+such a supply of delicious viands that Miss Matthews urged that Bettina
+and Anthony should stay and have supper.
+
+Bettina could not eat.
+
+"Please, I'm not hungry," she said, and went down the winding stairway,
+and when she came back her arms were full of roses.
+
+"Will you let him have them in his room?" she asked Anthony.
+
+"He shall see them first when he opens his eyes," Anthony promised;
+"they shall carry all of your messages to him."
+
+In the hushed room at Harbor Light there was darkness--and there was the
+fragrance of many flowers.
+
+Out of the darkness a faint voice wavered, "Lilacs?"
+
+The nurse bent over the high hospital bed. "Roses--lovely ones."
+
+A long silence. Then, "Lovely ladies?" said the faint voice.
+
+He could see them with his eyes shut--a whole procession of pretty
+ladies, all floating in the dimness. Just their faces on a broad band of
+light, over which the gray mists rolled now and then and blurred the
+outlines. Then the faces would again shine out, smiling--gay and sad,
+pensive and glad.
+
+"Lovely ladies," he said again.
+
+They followed him into his dreams, and kept him company until the pain
+began--that racking, wrenching pain; then they flew from him and left
+him alone to suffer.
+
+After a long time, when the nurse had bared his shoulder and had pricked
+it with something that felt like a pin, they came back--all those lovely
+faces; only now they seemed to peep from behind clouds of smoke, heavier
+than the mists, and more tantalizing in their concealments.
+
+So they came and went through the long night, leaving when the pain
+racked him, returning always when the nurse did things to his shoulder
+with her little shining instrument.
+
+They fled from him, too, when he opened his eyes and saw hazily that
+there was a light, and a great many flowers, and that Anthony was
+standing in a sort of bower of them.
+
+And Anthony was saying to some unseen person who stood at the head of
+the bed, "Did he notice the flowers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good--you can take them out now--nurse."
+
+He had tried to tell Anthony about the pretty ladies. But they had come
+back and were whirling about him on that band of light--and there was
+one with dark hair with a crescent moon above the parting--and there was
+one who came closer than the others, and who had hair that shone like
+gold, and a little white face.
+
+"Betty----"
+
+The nurse did not catch the name--but Anthony's quick ear was at once
+attentive.
+
+"She loves you, dear boy; and I'm going to make you well, so you may
+marry her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE ENCHANTED FOREST
+
+
+Far up in the hills the Beautiful Lady went daily to the post-office for
+her mail.
+
+It was a long walk, and the path skirted the edge of the forest. Leaving
+the path one entered upon a world of dim green light, a world of soft
+whispering sounds, a world of enchantment; and it was into this world
+that Diana's feet strayed as she came and went. It was here she spent
+most of her mornings; it was here she found the solitude she craved.
+
+The guests at the mountain house called the Beautiful Lady exclusive;
+but it was an exclusiveness which matched her air of remoteness, and
+since such friendships as she encouraged were with those who were lonely
+and tired and sick, she made no enemies by her withdrawal from the
+conventional life of the place.
+
+The lazy folk on the porch who were content to wait for the mail bag
+which came at noon by carrier always watched with curiosity the
+departure and return of the stately woman who was said to be wealthy
+and of great social eminence. She went alone and came back just in time
+for lunch, having loitered on the way to read her letters.
+
+The letters, however, were not always satisfying. They brought such
+meager news of that which lay so near her heart! Sophie kept
+persistently away from topics which might be disturbing; Bettina's
+girlish epistles really told nothing--and Anthony wrote not at all.
+
+Yet such scraps as she could glean formed the excitement of Diana's day,
+and always she had a vague and formless hope--a hope for which she
+reproached herself. Always she hoped for a letter from Anthony.
+
+She knew that he ought not to write. She knew that if he did write she
+would not answer--but the longing of her heart would not be stilled.
+
+As far as possible she forced her mind to thoughts of the future, and it
+was thus she had evolved the plan which she had written to Sophie. It
+was the only way in which her life could be linked with Anthony's; they
+would thus share in a work which might continue in interest to the end
+of their days.
+
+There were times, however, when all of her optimism, all of her
+philosophy failed, and when her whole nature cried out for reality--not
+for dreams.
+
+It was on one of these days of depression that she left behind her the
+hotel piazza with its chattering crowd, and drifted somewhat languidly
+across the lawn, past the tennis courts, and out into the mountain path.
+
+In her modish frock of gray linen, with a parasol of leaf green, she
+seemed to merge gradually into the grayness and greenness of the forest
+beyond. She might have been a dryad returning to her tree, or as an
+artist in the group on the porch remarked, "a nymph in a Corot setting."
+
+How still it was in the forest! Even the birds seemed to respect the
+silences, and slipped from branch to branch like shadows. The squirrels,
+flattened heads downward against gray tree trunks, whisked up and out of
+sight as the intruder advanced. A strayed butterfly went by in a
+wavering flight, seeking the sunshine and the flowers of the open
+fields.
+
+Diana loved the forest, but more than all she loved the sea. She missed
+the wild music of the waves and wind. The hills seemed to shut her in;
+she wanted the wide spaces, the limitless expanse of blue--she wanted
+the harbor with its many lights.
+
+Yet if Anthony married Betty it would be years before she would dare go
+back. His work was there, and he must stay; she would be exiled from the
+place she loved.
+
+Her steps quickened as if she would fly from the thought. She passed
+again beyond the edge of the arching trees, and came upon a winding
+road. Its last curve brought her to a little settlement of which the
+store, which was also the post-office, was the most imposing building.
+
+The postmistress knew her and had the package ready. "Lots of letters,
+two papers and a half dozen magazines," she said, cheerily. "I don't see
+how you find time to read so many."
+
+"I have nothing to do but read. I am not a lucky busy person like
+yourself." Diana was smiling as she turned up the corners of each letter
+to glance at the one beneath.
+
+On top was Sophie's daily budget, black-edged and bulky. Bettina's
+showed a faddish slender monogram. Following was Justin's--she knew that
+boyish scrawl; a business letter or two, a bill, an advertisement, and
+then--her heart leaped. On the flap of a great square envelope blazed
+the seal which Anthony had chosen for his house of healing--a lighthouse
+flashing its beacon over stormy waters.
+
+The little postmistress wondered at the radiance which illumined the
+face of the lovely lady. Diana, in saying a hurried farewell, sparkled
+like a girl.
+
+"You've given me such wonderful letters this morning," she said,
+breathlessly. "I must run away and read them."
+
+And she did run, literally, when she had passed beyond the limits of the
+village. Holding up her narrow skirt, her parasol under her arm, her
+precious burden of mail hugged tightly, she left the path, and again
+entered upon the enchanted forest.
+
+She knew of a place where she would read Anthony's letter, a warm little
+hollow, with a still silver pool beyond, a pool which, with its
+upstanding reeds and rushes, was merged at its farthest edge into a
+blurred purple background.
+
+Safe at last in her retreat she opened Anthony's letter, forgetting the
+others in her eagerness, seeing only the firm, simple script which
+crowded a dozen pages.
+
+He began quietly, but evidently, as he wrote, Anthony had been swayed by
+emotions which had mastered him, and he had written with fire and
+intensity, and, as she read, her heart responded tremulously:
+
+
+  "DEAR DIANA:
+
+  "Sophie has told me of your plan--your wonderful plan which has to do
+  with my work and with me, and which shall link our futures in an
+  interest which shall be above reproach.
+
+  "It was like you to think of it, and I shall not try to thank you.
+  Indeed you will not want my thanks. You and I are beyond conventional
+  concealments, and you know, as I know, that the thing which you are
+  doing is for your own happiness as well as for mine, and I am glad
+  that it is so, because your happiness is the thing which I most
+  desire.
+
+  "I have not wanted to think of you up there in the hills. You belong
+  to the sea, dear girl, and I know you are missing it, as we are
+  missing you. I know, too, that, as you read this, you will say: 'He is
+  overstepping bounds. He must not write these things to me.' But I am
+  going to write them, Diana, for the time has come when we must face
+  the big truths, and let the half-truths go.
+
+  "The big truth is this--that you and I love each other. The half-truth
+  is--that Bettina loves me, and that I must not break her heart.
+
+  "I am troubled about Bettina. Certainly the child is not happy. All of
+  her brightness has left her. She is pale and thin, and I am too wise a
+  physician of bodies not to know something, too, of hearts. You may say
+  that my attitude has affected her; that she had felt instinctively the
+  difference in me. But it is not that. I am sure it is not that. When
+  I asked her to-night if there was anything between us, she faltered
+  that she had something to tell me that she would write.
+
+  "Perhaps I should wait until her letter comes, but I cannot wait. You
+  are so vividly with me at this moment, Diana, that I can almost hear
+  your voice calling above the noise of the wind and waves. I can see
+  you as I like you best--all in white. I can feel your presence as I
+  felt it that night in the empty house as you stood on the threshold of
+  that moonlighted room.
+
+  "Oh, dear girl, come back to me. I must have you in my life. Otherwise
+  it will be a thwarted life--and a lonely one. For whether you marry me
+  or not, I will not marry Betty. I do not love her, and she shall not
+  spend her days as the unloved wife of one whose thoughts are all with
+  a wonder-woman up in the hills.
+
+  "Can't you see it as I do? We must not so profane marriage, Betty and
+  I. There is no idea of honor so false as that which holds a man or a
+  woman to a promise which has ceased to have a vital and a vivid
+  meaning.
+
+  "No man has a right to plan for a home unless Love is to be the
+  corner-stone. These things are sacred, and not to be spoken of except
+  to those who understand. But my love for you and your love for me
+  would form a barrier against all the sweet and tender meanings for
+  Betty of wifehood and motherhood.
+
+  "That's the plain truth of it. I'm a blunt man, and I've said it as it
+  has come to me after days of pondering.
+
+  "I am not saying these things that I may marry you. I am saying them
+  because they are true. Surely we can find a way to make Bettina happy.
+  Her youth and loveliness must always win love. The hearts of the boys
+  at the club are all under her little feet, and Justin--oh, if I only
+  dared hope that she could care for Justin----
+
+  "But marry her I will not, even if I go alone through life.
+
+  "For me you are the One Woman, Diana. In these days of separation from
+  you I have thought of many things, but of none more than this: that we
+  men, having loved one woman, deceive ourselves, when we lose her, with
+  the thought that another like her may be found--but she is never
+  found, and so we go through life half-men, unsatisfied, with hungry
+  hearts.
+
+  "There's a big storm coming. I wish you might go down to the beach and
+  walk with me in the wind. How often we have walked together in beating
+  storms, Diana, and have gloried in them--so we would face the storms
+  of life together; so I cannot face them with any other--or alone.
+
+  "Oh, girl, come back to me. I need you. I must have you. I _will_ have
+  you. You are mine.
+
+  "ANTHONY."
+
+The letter dropped from her fingers. She hid her face in her hands. His
+call echoed thunderingly in her ears. But she must not listen; she must
+not.
+
+She yielded for the moment, however, to the sweetness of his insistent
+demand. Curled up in the warm little hollow she dreamed of the things
+which might be--putting off, as long as possible, the moment of
+decision.
+
+The other letters lay unheeded at her feet. All friendship seemed futile
+at such a time. What could Sophie, or Bettina or Justin say which could
+match those burning words of her lover?
+
+[Illustration: THE OTHER LETTERS LAY UNHEEDED]
+
+The sun, rising higher, filtered through the branches and fell like
+golden rain upon the surface of the pool--the purple shadows gave way to
+emerald vistas; a trail of honey-bees traveled unerringly toward a
+hidden honey store. It was high noon in the forest!
+
+Diana, waking to the fact that the hours had flown, gathered up her
+other letters, and opened the one on top of the pile. It was Justin's.
+What could he have to say to her, this boy who lived his life so
+lightly?
+
+But when she had read the scrawled words she sat staring at them, hardly
+believing the things which had been written.
+
+
+  "DEAR LADY:
+
+  "Betty Dolce told me last night of her engagement to Anthony. But it
+  was too late. You see it has come to this: that there isn't any one
+  in the world for me but Betty--she's so little and young and sweet,
+  and she has waked up the man in me, and that's what no other girl has
+  ever done.
+
+  "But she won't break her promise, and last night I left her crying,
+  and I can't stand the thought of it. I just can't stand it. When it
+  was only I who suffered, I could get along, but now--why, it's Betty's
+  happiness against all the rest.
+
+  "Am I doing a dishonorable thing, Diana, when I ask her to tell
+  Anthony the truth?
+
+  "You shall decide for us. I cannot think clearly; I love her too much.
+
+  "JUSTIN."
+
+What had inspired Justin to write to her like that? Did Betty know? Did
+Sophie? She went to the reading of the other letters eagerly, and when
+at last they lay before her, and the whole pitiful little story was
+revealed, the tears were running down her cheeks. Oh, the unhappiness of
+the dear young hearts--and the happiness which was to come!
+
+Those who had assembled on the porch of the hotel in the before-luncheon
+hour were struck by something unusual in the bearing of the Beautiful
+Lady as she came toward them. All the listlessness of the morning had
+gone. Her head was up and she walked swiftly, lightly.
+
+"She makes me think of the 'Winged Victory,'" was the comment of the
+observant artist. "She gives the same impression of triumphant motion."
+
+At other times Diana had rather resented the inspection of the people on
+the porch. But to-day all of the faces looked friendly--she felt that
+she would like to say to them all, "I am going home to be happy." But
+what she really did was to bow somewhat shyly, and to go on with flaming
+cheeks.
+
+The artist looked after her. "I wonder if she knows that she belongs to
+the goddess type of the Golden Age," he said, and sighed.
+
+It was just at dusk that Diana stepped once more within the borders of
+the enchanted forest, and sought the warm little hollow beside the pool.
+In her filmy gown of midnight blue she moved like a shadow among deeper
+shadows--her neck and shoulders gleaming white.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About her were all the eerie noises of the dark, the little, little
+sounds of little, little things.
+
+"Good-bye," Diana whispered, "good-bye--dear forest."
+
+The sounds seemed to swell triumphantly into a love song--the weird and
+wonderful song of the night. From bush and branch call answered call,
+mate invited mate; all the wild things of the wood were voicing their
+need, each of the other.
+
+So the Beautiful Lady left behind her the sheltered hollow in the wood,
+and turned her face toward the sea with its beating storms, and she
+turned with gladness.
+
+It was late the next afternoon when she came at last to her home on the
+harbor.
+
+Sophie, warned by a telegram, was waiting for her.
+
+"Oh, dearest dear," she said, as they embraced each other in the garden,
+"you beauty! Why, Diana, you don't look a day over twenty."
+
+"I'm so happy, Sophie. Happy women are always young. Oh, I've so much to
+tell you. Your letter came with all the other letters. How silly we have
+been! That's the way with half the troubles in life. How easy it would
+be to be happy if only we could look into the minds of other people."
+
+Peter Pan, hearing Diana's voice, came to them, tumultuously, leaping
+above the nasturtium borders and the brilliant flower beds.
+
+Diana picked him up. "Think of it, Peter," she said, in her thrilling
+voice; "you're going to live up the road with me for all the rest of
+your life--in Anthony's house, and I am going to live there, too."
+
+Sophie gasped. "Oh, has it come to that?"
+
+"It has come to everything that means happiness," Diana answered. "Let's
+go up-stairs, Sophie, where we can talk."
+
+As they entered the house Delia came to meet them. Her face lacked its
+usual beaming welcome. "Oh, my dear," she said, "I'm glad to see you so
+much better, but it is a sad errand which has brought you."
+
+"Sad--what do you mean, Delia?"
+
+The two women exchanged glances, and Sophie faltered, "Didn't you get my
+telegram, Diana?"
+
+"Telegram--no, I've heard nothing."
+
+"It's Justin. He's dreadfully hurt. His air-ship fell, and Anthony has
+him at Harbor Light."
+
+She sketched the details. "Betty is there. Anthony won't let any one see
+him. But he thinks Betty should be within call."
+
+"Oh, Sophie, is it as bad as that----?"
+
+"It is about as bad as it can be, Diana."
+
+When they had talked it over, it was decided that Diana should call up
+Anthony and ask to see Betty at Harbor Light; when she had given the
+telephone number she found herself shivering with expectation. In a
+moment she would hear his voice!
+
+She was told, however, that Dr. Blake was out on an important case; that
+he would not be back until late.
+
+"Perhaps I'd better wait until he returns before I make any plans,"
+Diana told Sophie, and then Sara came in--a subdued Sara, with much of
+her sharpness modified, and they had dinner together, and were served by
+the adoring Delia.
+
+After dinner Diana grew restless, and, wandering alone in the garden,
+found her feet straying in the direction of Anthony's house on the
+rocks.
+
+Peter Pan followed her, and waited for her when she went in, having
+learned caution from his last imprisonment.
+
+Diana knew where the key was kept, and felt for it behind a cornice. She
+let herself in and shut the door behind her. The lights from the street
+lamps showed that some pieces of furniture had been placed since her
+last visit. There were rugs beneath her feet. On the table in the hall
+was the end of a candle in a quaint silver holder, and a cup contained
+matches.
+
+She lighted the candle, and made a tour of the lower floor. In the
+living-room she set two big chairs side by side on the hearth and
+laughed a little, fancying her head and Anthony's close together. In the
+dining-room were treasures of china--the White Canton in unchipped
+dozens. She set two places on the polished table, and drank Anthony's
+health in a mystical cup of tea.
+
+She ascended the stairs. There were massive beds and massive highboys
+and lowboys and tables and chairs everywhere, but in the room to which
+she had brought the lilacs there was nothing but a little old-fashioned
+piano, and the gray pottery bowl which had held her flowers. Evidently
+Anthony had changed his plans, and this place which he had dedicated to
+her was to be used simply as a sitting-room or music room for Bettina.
+
+The candle flared and went out. Diana sat down on the old-fashioned
+round stool in front of the little piano. Anthony's mother had played on
+that little piano. It had been his father's gift to his bride.
+
+With her hands resting on the keys she sat and looked out over her
+beloved harbor.
+
+There was a little silver moon--Diana's moon, the crescent of the
+huntress.
+
+Well, it was Diana's night! Her fingers struck softly the chords of the
+music she had created.
+
+[Illustration: Music score]
+
+On the other side of the street, a tired man, coming out of a house
+where a sick woman had needed his services, halted and held up his head.
+
+He crossed the road and entered the house.
+
+The rugs deadened the sound of his steps. He stopped on the threshold of
+that upper room. He could see the faint outlines of the tall white
+figure; he knew the voice, the song.
+
+"Diana, my dear girl!"
+
+She turned and stood up.
+
+"Anthony--oh, Anthony, I have come back--to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE PROCESSION OF PRETTY LADIES
+
+
+For days the procession of pretty ladies kept Justin company. Then they
+floated away on the rolling mists, and he found real faces bending over
+him,--the nurse's with its fresh comeliness, and Anthony's with a light
+on it which transfigured it.
+
+One morning when he waked a white rose lay on his pillow.
+
+"Did you put it there, nurse?"
+
+"No. Miss Dolce came."
+
+On Anthony's next visit Justin asked: "Why didn't you let me see her?"
+
+"She sees you every day. Just a peep in at your door. But always when
+you are asleep."
+
+"But why not when I am awake?"
+
+"It would tire you too much, dear boy."
+
+"Only let me look at her."
+
+So at last Bettina stood beside him, very pale, but with her eyes
+shining.
+
+Justin could not lift his hurt hands to touch her, so she bent down and
+laid her cheek against his, and whispered, "When you are well, we are
+going to be--married."
+
+"I know--sweetheart."
+
+"And--may I have the little silver ring for my wedding ring, Justin?"
+
+"Yes, sweetheart."
+
+She was not white now, but all rosy with blushes. As she again bent over
+him he felt the thrilling power of her youth and beauty. Her presence
+was like wine, reviving him. Her words were a loving cup held to his
+lips.
+
+"Oh, my Betty, help me to live," he whispered, weakly.
+
+"Hush; oh, my poor, poor boy."
+
+In the weeks that followed it seemed as if only love were holding Justin
+back from death. There were days when Bettina was not allowed to see
+him; there were other days when Anthony dared not tell her the fears
+which assailed him, when he avoided all of her questions, confiding only
+in Diana.
+
+"There's an awful chance that he will never walk."
+
+Diana, very pale, asked, "Is it his spine?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he was so strong and beautiful."
+
+"He will never fly again, Diana."
+
+"Oh, poor Justin!"
+
+"And poor Betty. I wonder if, when all the first glamour is gone, she
+will be able to stand the test."
+
+"I am sure she will. She has been so brave."
+
+"If I know Justin, he won't let her marry him when he learns the truth."
+
+"Oh, Anthony!"
+
+"I haven't given up hope, however. His wonderful vitality and perfect
+health may bring about that which now seems impossible."
+
+Bettina, since she could not minister to Justin, spent the days in
+ministering to others. In the great workshop where men and women of
+wealth wove rugs and made pottery as if their bread and butter depended
+upon it, she became a familiar figure. The patients loved to have her
+there, and she went from one to the other, a charming little helper in
+her white frock, with her air of girlish grace.
+
+In those days her beauty assumed a new aspect. All the petulance was
+gone from her expression--the restlessness from her manner.
+
+"How lovely she is!" said nurses and patients and doctors, and they
+spoke not of her physical beauty, but of her loveliness of mind and of
+soul.
+
+Whenever she was allowed to see Justin she came to him with hope in her
+shining glance. And one day Anthony let her take the nurse's place, so
+that for the first time they were alone.
+
+It was then that Justin told her of the Procession of Pretty Ladies.
+"Anthony says it was the morphine," he said, "but whatever it was, they
+kept me company for days."
+
+Betty laughed. "You'll soon have a real procession of pretty ladies.
+Diana wants to come, and Sophie and Sara and Doris. But Anthony insists
+that they must wait until you can sit up."
+
+"When will that be?"
+
+"Soon."
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Don't ask so many questions. As soon as it is good for you, you
+impatient boy."
+
+"I _am_ impatient. I want to be up and out. I want to fly again over the
+harbor. Betty, all the lovely days are going, and I am lying here like a
+log."
+
+Her heart seemed to stand still. She knew that he would never fly again.
+Anthony had told her that he might prepare her in part for the truth.
+But Justin must not know.
+
+She spoke hurriedly. "I should hate to have you fly again--I should
+always be thinking of the time I saw you fall."
+
+"It's the only thing I can do well, Betty."
+
+"There are so many things that you can do--with me."
+
+He smiled. "What could I do--with you?"
+
+"You could build a little workroom in the top of our house--_our_ house,
+dear boy; and you could sit there and invent wonderful things to make
+other men safe who go up in the air, and I could watch you do it."
+
+"But why should I be shut up, dearest? I'm not made for that sort of
+thing. I'd rather be out--in the open."
+
+There was a note of alarm in his voice. Bettina tried to laugh
+naturally. "Because I'd rather have you with me, you venturesome
+youth--then I should know you were safe."
+
+"If anything could hold me down it would be you,--Betty."
+
+She was silent for a moment, then she said, with hesitation, "Justin,
+dear----"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I don't want to wait until you are well--to be married----"
+
+As he turned on her his puzzled glance the color flooded her face.
+"Perhaps it isn't usual for a woman to say--such a thing. Perhaps I
+shouldn't say it. But--I want to feel that I belong to you--I want to
+know that I have the right to be always at your side. I want to know
+that--where you go--I can go--Justin----"
+
+The bandages were still on his hands and arms, those hands which yearned
+to take her hands, those arms which ached to enfold her.
+
+But his eyes held a look which was a caress. "But it would not be fair
+to you, sweetheart,--to spend your honeymoon in nursing me."
+
+"It would be fair to me. Oh, Justin, Justin, it isn't just sweetheart
+love that I am giving you; it is wife love and mother love--I feel
+sometimes as if you were my hurt little boy, and that I'd give my life
+to help you----"
+
+She was not crying, but her voice held an emotion which was deeper than
+tears; her steadfast eyes met his; her little hands were laid lightly on
+the covers above his heart.
+
+And suddenly he saw her enthroned--a woman, not a child--a wife, not a
+playmate. Her youth and beauty were still there to charm him, but back
+of them was a quality which would hold him until the end--a divine
+quality of tenderness, of compassion, of eternal constancy.
+
+And, in response, he brought the best that manhood can bring to
+woman--reverence and that high regard which makes of marriage a
+spiritual bond.
+
+He tried to speak, but his voice failed. Then, as she bent above him,
+she heard his whisper:
+
+"Kiss me--my wife!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the days which followed the pretty ladies came in a charming
+procession--Diana and Sophie, little Sara, bravely wistful, Doris
+escorted by Bobbie. And last, but not least in importance, came Letty
+Matthews, in a new white dress and rose-wreathed hat, and with happiness
+glorifying her plain features.
+
+But though they came and went, all these good friends of his, and he
+smiled and greeted them, his eyes went always beyond them to the little
+white and gold creature with the woman-eyes. And his voice would call
+for her, and until she came he would not be content.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE AFTERGLOW
+
+
+Anthony vetoed absolutely the idea of a marriage before Justin's fate
+should be finally decided.
+
+"But if he knows," Bettina urged with trembling lips, "if he knows that
+he may be--crippled--he will say that I shall not marry him. You know
+that he would say that, Anthony."
+
+"And he would be right. A chronic invalid should not marry, Betty. I
+have great hope of his recovery. You and he must live on that hope a
+little longer."
+
+Bettina begged Diana to intercede, and that lovely lady, having claimed
+Anthony for a twilight walk on the beach, began her plea.
+
+But after the first words she found that she must deal not with the man
+who loved her, but with the great Dr. Anthony.
+
+"I shall certainly not allow it. I am not, of course, her legal
+guardian, and so I cannot prevent it in that way. But I can tell
+Justin."
+
+"But she will not be happy without him, Anthony. If it were you, I
+should marry you."
+
+"I should not let you."
+
+"You could not help it."
+
+They faced each other--this strong man and this strong woman. With their
+wills opposed, each seemed immovable. It was evident that only a great
+depth of affection could bring harmony between their dominant natures.
+
+Anthony, smiling at the earnestness of his beloved, did not yield an
+inch. "These things are not to be decided by sentiment, dear. There are
+meanings in marriage far beyond mere romance, far beyond the fate of the
+two individuals who make the contract. We doctors must uphold the ideal
+of physical perfection lest the race suffer. Moreover Bettina does not
+know, she cannot know, what life would mean under such conditions. She
+does not know her own strength, her own weakness. She must learn
+something of life before she takes its heaviest burdens upon her. If in
+the years to come she can sustain Justin by her friendship, let it be
+that. She must not marry him."
+
+"You--with your friendships, Anthony! Love cannot go back to
+friendship."
+
+She had seated herself on a stone bench which backed by a clump of
+pines, commanded a wide view of the sea. He hesitated, wondering how he
+might chase away the shadow which lay on her lovely face.
+
+"Dear heart, we must not disagree about a thing which may right itself.
+Tell Betty that, if she will be patient for a few weeks, I shall hope to
+withdraw my opposition."
+
+Her eyes did not meet his.
+
+"Are you thinking that I am cruel, Diana?"
+
+"No, oh, no. But your wisdom won't cure Betty's heartache."
+
+"It may save her future heartaches."
+
+"I wonder if a woman's point of view is ever a man's point of view,
+Anthony?"
+
+"Only when two people love each other very much, dear. Then each tries
+to look at life through the other's eyes. We men would grow brutal
+without you to curb us. But, on the other hand, you need, now and then,
+the masculine common-sense view-point."
+
+"I don't want the common-sense point of view in this, Anthony."
+
+He laid his hands on her shoulders and stood looking down at her.
+
+"Diana."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is it, dear?"
+
+"I don't quite like--being curbed, Anthony."
+
+She was laughing a little for, in spite of her rebellion, there was
+something stimulating in the thought of his masterfulness. "You see,
+I've always ruled," she said.
+
+"You shall still rule, everywhere, except in one little corner of my
+kingdom which has to do with things medical--over that I must still
+reign."
+
+"Of course if you think that you are right in this----"
+
+"I know that I am right. Look at me, Diana."
+
+Thrilled by his tone of command, she did look at him with eyes like
+stars.
+
+Then, knowing that he had conquered, he drew her up to him and said,
+gently, "We doctors have to seem cruel to be kind--but you must never
+believe me cruel, Diana."
+
+So July passed and August, and the little town took on all the beauty of
+its September coloring. The dahlias blazed from every fence corner.
+Against the gray rocks their masses of brilliance tempted the brushes of
+the artists who came to paint.
+
+The yachts began to leave the harbor, some of them going South, some of
+them making their exit to the clanking chorus of the marine railway. The
+yacht clubs sounded their last guns, packed away their pennants and
+hauled up their floating docks. The hotels were closed, and most of the
+mansions on the Neck were deserted. The summer folk were turning toward
+the city, and the little seaport town was settling down to its winter
+routine.
+
+It was on one of those quiet September days that Anthony said to
+Bettina, "Set your wedding day, my dear."
+
+"Oh, Anthony, may I, really?"
+
+"Yes. The specialists who came yesterday gave a final decision. Justin
+is going to get--well."
+
+The invalid, propped up in a big chair, was approached thus:
+
+"Would you mind if it were a big affair, Justin?"
+
+"Not if you want it that way, sweetheart."
+
+"I don't, if you don't. But Diana and the rest are planning----"
+
+He laughed. "I want the whole world to see you, and I want all the bells
+to ring, and I want to run away afterward with you, and to have our
+honeymoon last forever."
+
+So they were married from Diana's, at high noon, and as the bride
+descended the stairway, a sigh of admiration went up from the waiting
+guests. Her costume had been copied from an old painting, and emphasized
+her likeness to those medieval Venetian beauties whose blood ran in her
+veins. Her veil was caught back, cap-fashion, from her face, then fell
+to her feet. The silken thinness of her gown was weighted with silver
+embroideries.
+
+Slightly to the left of the officiating clergyman was a screen of white
+roses. As Bettina advanced, the screen was set aside, and showed Justin,
+in a big chair, pale and smiling, and seeing only his bride as she came
+toward him.
+
+Standing by her lover's side, Bettina gave the responses clearly. And
+when he placed on her finger the little silver ring, it was she who bent
+and kissed him.
+
+As soon as the ceremony was over, the bridegroom was whisked away, to be
+followed by the bride when she had cut the wedding cake.
+
+In the library at the head of the stairs she found him. He was on his
+feet, unsupported, and looking expectantly toward the door.
+
+She gave a little cry. "Justin, you must not----!"
+
+He laughed and held out his arms to her. "Anthony said I might. Just to
+show you. He didn't quite dare for the wedding. But I want you to know
+that you are not marrying--a broken reed--dearest."
+
+She looked up at him. "How good it seemed," she whispered, "to see your
+face above mine. I--I am just as high as your heart--Justin."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Snow over the harbor. Snow, too, at Harbor Light.
+
+Anthony's patients, warmly housed, were busy with Christmas work. Women
+who had always bought perfunctory Christmas presents, and to whom the
+holiday season had meant merely a weary round of shopping, bent eagerly
+over the bit of pottery or of weaving which was to carry a message of
+peace and good will. Men, whose gift-giving had lost all of its precious
+meanings, were carving quaint weather-vanes and toys with infinite
+pains, and reveling in their skill.
+
+Diana, moving from one to the other, encouraged and suggested.
+
+"I am so glad we worked out that mistletoe design for the pottery and
+the holly for the little white rugs," she said; "it makes the work so
+much more interesting."
+
+"It is you who makes the work interesting," said her adoring husband who
+was at her elbow. "Don't you ever wish for anything else? Wouldn't you
+like to be down South with Justin and Betty--with purple seas and
+cocoanut palms and tennis and golf and good times?"
+
+"I'd rather be here with you. Every time you come back from an important
+case or operation I feel as if you were a knight returning from
+battle--no woman can have that feeling when her husband isn't doing
+vital things--but I'll wait until I get home, Anthony, to tell you the
+rest of it--the whole of Harbor Light has its eyes on us."
+
+It was not curiosity which drew the eyes toward them. To these weary
+creatures, many of whom had lost their illusions, the romance of their
+beloved doctor had given new hope. Their belief in the happiness of
+another made their own chances of happiness seem less remote.
+
+It was late that night, however, before Diana could tell Anthony "the
+rest of it." He was delayed by a call to an outside case, and she sat up
+to wait for him.
+
+The snow had stopped, and as she stood at the window in her room
+looking out, Minot's flashed above the horizon, and the big light on the
+Point flamed against the darkness like a sun. The little twinkling fair
+weather lights of the summer were gone. Only these remained through the
+beating storms to send out their warnings to the ships.
+
+It was the great lights of the harbor which served humanity; it was
+great men like Anthony who served!
+
+Smiling a little, in the fulness of her content, she turned back into
+the fire-lighted room, and went to her piano.
+
+Anthony, coming up the stairs, spent and chilled, heard her singing:
+
+    "The stormy evening closes now in vain,
+     Loud wails the wind and beats the driving rain,
+           While here in sheltered house
+           With fiery-painted walls,
+     I hear the wind abroad,
+           I hark the calling squalls--
+    'Blow, blow,' I cry, 'you burst your cheeks in vain!
+     Blow, blow,' I cry, 'my love is home again!'"
+
+On the threshold of this blessed sanctuary all of his weariness seemed
+to vanish; here he found rest and refreshment--here, at last, he had
+found fulfillment of all his dreams.
+
+The End
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"_The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay_"
+
+_There Are Two Sides to Everything--_
+
+--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
+writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset &
+Dunlap book wrapper.
+
+You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for
+every mood and every taste and every pocket-book.
+
+_Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to
+the publishers for a complete catalog._
+
+_There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARGARET PEDLER'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE GUARDED HALO
+
+  The story of a girl and a man who threw away honor and reputation to
+  protect untarnished the memory of a friend.
+
+BITTER HERITAGE
+
+  She learned that her father, the man she had idolized, was a thief and
+  a swindler--a bitter heritage not to be escaped.
+
+YESTERDAY'S HARVEST
+
+  The harvest of an early love brings a strange situation and triumph of
+  sacrifice.
+
+TOMORROW'S TANGLE
+
+  The game of love is fraught with danger. To win in the finest sense it
+  must be played fairly.
+
+RED ASHES
+
+  A gripping story of a doctor who failed in a crucial operation and had
+  only himself to blame. Could the woman he loved forgive him.
+
+THE BARBARIAN LOVER
+
+  A love story based upon the creed that the only important things
+  between birth and death are the courage to face life and the love to
+  sweeten it.
+
+THE MOON OUT OF REACH
+
+  Nan Davenport's problem is one that many a girl has faced--her own
+  happiness or her father's bond.
+
+THE HOUSE OF DREAMS COME TRUE
+
+  How a man and a woman fulfilled a gypsy's prophecy.
+
+THE HERMIT OF FAR END
+
+  How love made its way into a walled-in house and a walled-in heart.
+
+THE LAMP OF FATE
+
+  The story of a woman who tried to take all and give nothing.
+
+THE SPLENDID FOLLY
+
+  Do you believe that husbands and wives should have no secrets from
+  each other?
+
+THE VISION OF DESIRE
+
+  It is easy to destroy illusions, difficult to restore them. Anne
+  restored love from the ashes of disillusion.
+
+WAVES OF DESTINY
+
+  Each of these stories has the sharp impact of an emotional crisis--the
+  compressed quality of one of Margaret Pedlar's widely read novels.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOVELS BY TEMPLE BAILEY
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+BURNING BEAUTY
+
+Beautiful Virginia Oliphant is loved by two men; one tempts her with
+millions, and the other tempts her with nothing more than his devotion.
+
+SILVER SLIPPERS
+
+Days of delight and disillusionment until Joan Dudley's knight actually
+came.
+
+WALLFLOWERS
+
+They were twins, they were "Wallflowers" perhaps--but they were
+beautiful, and young and real.
+
+THE BLUE WINDOW
+
+Hildegarde finds herself transplanted from the middle western farm to
+the gay social whirl of the East.
+
+PEACOCK FEATHERS
+
+Jerry, the idealist, loves Mimi, a beautiful spoiled society girl. A
+conflict of wealth and love.
+
+THE DIM LANTERN
+
+The romance of little Jane Barnes who is loved by two men.
+
+THE GAY COCKADE
+
+Unusual short stories in which Miss Bailey shows her knowledge of
+character and her skill in romance tales.
+
+TRUMPETER SWAN
+
+Randy Paine came back from France to the monotony of everyday affairs.
+But a girl showed him the beauty in the commonplace.
+
+THE TIN SOLDIER
+
+Derry wishes to serve his country but is bound by a tie he cannot in
+honor break. Jean loves him and shares his humiliation to help him win.
+
+MISTRESS ANNE
+
+Into the life of Anne came two men: one is weak and the other strong and
+they both need Anne.
+
+CONTRARY MARY
+
+An old fashioned love story that has a very modern application.
+
+GLORY OF YOUTH
+
+An old question yet ever new--how far should an engagement of marriage
+bind two persons who find they no longer love?
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+RUBY M. AYRES' NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+LOVERS
+
+ONE SUMMER
+
+LOVE CHANGES
+
+LIFE STEPS IN
+
+BROKEN
+
+CHARITY'S CHOSEN
+
+THE PLANTER OF THE TREE
+
+SPOILT MUSIC
+
+THE MAN WITHOUT A HEART
+
+A BACHELOR HUSBAND
+
+THE SECOND HONEYMOON
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ROMANCES OF THE MODERN GIRL
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.
+
+Here is a list of books by well known writers of romance stories for the
+modern girl. They are writers whose names have become famous with the
+publication of their stories as newspaper serials. These books are
+available in the Grosset & Dunlap Edition.
+
+MAY CHRISTIE
+
+The High Speed Girl
+Flirting Wives
+The Jazz Widow
+Love's Miracle
+A Kiss For Corinna
+Eager Love
+Man Madness
+Love's Ecstasy
+
+ALMA SIOUX SCARBERRY
+
+Make-Up
+The Dimpled Racketeer
+The Flat Tire
+High Hat
+
+BEATRICE BURTON
+
+The Little Yellow House
+Easy
+Money Love
+The Hollywood Girl
+Honey Lou
+The Flapper Wife
+Her Man
+
+ROBERT D. ANDREWS
+
+The Stolen Husband
+Three Girls Lost
+One Girl Found
+
+ROB EDEN
+
+The Lovely Liar
+Step-Child
+Love Blind
+The Girl with Red Hair
+Short Skirts
+
+ELENORE MEHERIN
+
+Miss Pat
+Jerry
+Chickie
+Chickie, A Sequel
+Nora Lee
+Sandy
+
+LAURA LOU BROOKMAN
+
+Tarnished
+Mad Marriage
+Heart Hungry
+As No Woman Hath Loved
+Her Love Problem
+Playmate
+The Heart Bandit
+
+JANE DIXON
+
+Miss Hard Boiled
+
+ANNE GARDNER
+
+Working Wives
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF SINCLAIR LEWIS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.
+
+Within the space of a few years Sinclair Lewis has become one of the
+most Distinguished of American Novelists.
+
+ELMER GANTRY
+
+Elmer Gantry, hypocrite and voluptuary, is painted against a background
+of church members and professing Christians scarcely less hypocritical
+than he. In this book Sinclair Lewis adds a violent stroke to his
+growing picture of materialistic America.
+
+MANTRAP
+
+A clever satire on the adventures of a New York lawyer seeking rest and
+diversion in the northwoods. Instead of rest he finds trouble in the
+person of his host's wife--young, pretty and flirtatious.
+
+ARROWSMITH
+
+The story of a country doctor whose search for truth led him to the
+heights of the medical profession, to the heights and depths of love and
+marriage and to final peace as a quietly heroic laboratory worker in the
+backwoods of Vermont.
+
+BABBITT
+
+Every man will recognize in the character of George Babbitt, something
+of himself. He was a booster and a joiner, but behind all of his
+activities was a wistful wonder as to what life holds.
+
+MAIN STREET
+
+Carol Kennicott's attempt to bring life and culture to Gopher Prairie
+and Gopher Prairie's reaction toward her teachings have made this book
+one of the most famous of the last decade.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's List.
+
+THE PRODIGAL GIRL
+DUSKIN
+CRIMSON ROSES
+OUT OF THE STORM
+THE HONOR GIRL
+JOB'S NIECE
+COMING THROUGH THE RYE
+A NEW NAME
+ARIEL CUSTER
+THE BEST MAN
+THE CITY OF FIRE
+CLOUDY JEWEL
+DAWN OF THE MORNING
+THE ENCHANTED BARN
+EXIT BETTY
+THE FINDING OF JASPER HOLT
+THE GIRL FROM MONTANA
+LO, MICHAEL
+THE MAN OF THE DESERT
+MARCIA SCHUYLER
+MIRANDA
+THE MYSTERY OF MARY
+PHOEBE DEANE
+THE RED SIGNAL
+THE SEARCH
+TOMORROW ABOUT THIS TIME
+THE TRYST
+THE WITNESS
+NOT UNDER THE LAW
+RE-CREATIONS
+THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Glory of Youth, by Temple Bailey
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLORY OF YOUTH ***
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