It must have been close on to midnight when he waked me, sitting on the edge of my bed. He must have gone to his own room very softly, meaning not to disturb me; now I heard him calling my name in a whisper and his hand seeking for my face. I reached up and drew his down to me. "Oh, my dear----" I was startled at what I found there. "Beloved, why are you crying?" I could feel him shake with sudden uncontrollable emotion. I kept his head on my breast and comforted him. "When did you come in?" "An hour ago--you were asleep." The commonplace question seemed to quiet him. "Was it something went wrong at the dinner?" "Wrong, yes ... but not there, not there. It's all wrong, it has been wrong from the beginning." "Dear heart, tell me." "Olive, marry me; say you'll marry me!" There was urgency in his whisper, there was pain in it. "Say it; say it!" "I'll marry you. I've been waiting for you to ask." "Oh, my dear, when I have begged you so...." "Tell me," I urged.... "There isn't anything to tell, only ... we walked along the parapet and were very happy together. They're a good sort. I've known them for years. And we found a peasant woman selling lace, good lace, the women said, and cheap ... Harwood bought some for his wife ... and Stanley bought his sister some. Harwood went back, pretending he'd forgotten something, and bought a piece his wife wanted and thought she couldn't afford. And I couldn't buy you any ... not openly. I wanted Miss Stanley to select some handkerchiefs that I said were for the girls and she said girls shouldn't wear that kind. Oh, Olive, don't you understand?" "I understand; you shall go back to-morrow and buy me some." "But it won't be the same ... and afterward ... after dinner we sat in the garden and Harwood sat with his arm round his wife's chair. And you were over here ... _hiding_! Oh, Olive, I want my wife, I want her ... in the light, before everybody. I want her." I was crying now. "It's all wrong," he insisted, "it's been wrong from the beginning. We belong together, before everybody." He kept repeating that phrase over and over. "All the years that we've been apart ... and now just to have it in a hole in a corner!" "No, no, my dear!" I protested. "Before God ... it's been before God!" We sobbed together. By and by Love came and comforted us. * * * * *