"I've sat there nights on my veranda, and thought and thought of you, Milly, until it seemed as though you were really there by my side and I could almost touch you." "Really!" Milly is becoming moved in spite of herself. Somehow Duncan's words have a genuine ring to them. "I believe," she muses, "that you _are_ the sort of man who could care always for a woman." "I always have cared for one woman!" "You are good, Edgar." "I don't know about that. Good hasn't much to do between men and women when they love.... It's always love that counts, isn't it?" (Milly is not as sure of that doctrine as she was once, but she is content that the man should feel that way. She does not argue the point.) "Can't you sit there with me, Milly, and watch the stars for the rest of our lives?" Milly evades. She must have the terms set forth more explicitly. "It wouldn't be right to keep Virgie out there away from people all the time, would it?" He sees the point and yields. "We'll come here every year for the fall and see your friends." "That would be nice," she accepts graciously. But Chicago doesn't appeal to Milly as strongly as it had on her first return to its breezy, hearty life. "I should like to have Virgie study music," she suggests, "and travel--have advantages." "Of course!" he assents eagerly, and bids again, more daringly,--"We'll take her to Europe." "That would be pleasant." "In a year or two," he explains, "the ranch will almost run itself and be making big money--with the right rate on lemons and the tariff as it is. Then we can do almost anything we please--live any place you like." A pause here. So far it is wholly satisfactory, Milly is thinking, and she wonders what more she wants. Then,-- "Milly?" She looks at him with kind eyes. "You won't make me wait--much longer?" Milly slowly shakes her head, acceptingly. "God, how I have longed for you!" "Silly man!" But she is pleased. She is thinking,-- "I'm doing it for Virginia. It's her only chance--I must do it." Which was not altogether a falsehood, and she repeats this self-defence to herself again when later on Duncan kisses her for the first time,--"It's for _her_ sake--I would do anything for her." And with a sigh of unconquerable sentimentalism she seals her bargain on the man's lips. She has found a new sentimental faith,--a mother's sacrifice for her child.... But she is really very glad, and quite tender with him. * * * * *