An instant she stood within the ruined doorway, her left hand resting on the moldy jam. Then, with a cry, she started forward--a cry in which terror had given place to joy, despair to hope. Forgotten now the fact that, save for the shrouding of her messy hair, she stood naked. Forgotten the wreck, the desolation everywhere. "Oh--thank Heaven!" gasped she. There, in that inner office, half-rising from the wrack of many things that had been and were now no more, her startled eyes beheld the figure of a man--of Allan Stern! He lived! At her he peered with eyes that saw not, yet; toward her he groped a vague, unsteady hand. He lived! Not quite alone in this world-ruin, not all alone was she! CHAPTER II REALIZATION The joy in Beatrice's eyes gave way to poignant wonder as she gazed on him. Could this be _he?_ Yes, well she knew it was. She recognized him even through the grotesquery of his clinging rags, even behind the mask of a long, red, dusty beard and formidable mustache, even despite the wild and staring incoherence of his whole expression. Yet how incredible the metamorphosis! To her flashed a memory of this man, her other-time employer--keen and smooth-shaven, alert, well-dressed, self-centered, dominant, the master of a hundred complex problems, the directing mind of engineering works innumerable. Faltering and uncertain now he stood there. Then, at the sound of the girl's voice, he staggered toward her with outflung hands. He stopped, and for a moment stared at her. For he had had no time as yet to correlate his thoughts, to pull himself together. And while one's heart might throb ten times, Beatrice saw terror in his blinking, bloodshot eyes. But almost at once the engineer mastered himself. Even as Beatrice watched him, breathlessly, from the door, she saw his fear die out, she saw his courage well up fresh and strong. It was almost as though something tangible were limning the man's soul upon his face. She thrilled at sight of him. And though for a long moment no word was spoken, while the man and woman stood looking at each other like two children in some dread and unfamiliar attic, an understanding leaped between them. Then, womanlike, instinctively as she breathed, the girl ran to him. Forgetful of every convention and of her disarray, she seized his hand. And in a voice that trembled till it broke she cried: "What is it? What does all this mean? Tell me!" To him she clung. "Tell me the truth--and save me! Is it _real?_" Stern looked at her wonderingly. He smiled a strange, wan, mirthless smile. All about him he looked. Then his lips moved, but for the moment no sound came. He made another effort, this time successful. "There, there," said he huskily, as though the dust and dryness of the innumerable years had got into his very voice. "There, now, don't be afraid!