"Miss Dear has made a good many things clear to us both," Collier Pratt said, but he said no more that might be even remotely construed as referring to the issue between them, and Nancy finished out her day with dragging limbs and an aching empty heart that a word of tenderness would have filled to running over. But after her work for the day was done, and she was back in her own apartment with Sheila tucked snugly in bed, and Hitty out for the night with a sick friend, there came the touch on her bell that she knew was Collier Pratt's; and she opened the door to find him standing on her threshold. "I knew you'd come," she said, as women always say to the man they have that hour given up looking for. "I wasn't sure I would," Collier Pratt said, "but I did, you see." "Why weren't you sure?" She stood beside him in her little rectangular hall while he divested himself of his cape, and placed his hat, stick and gloves in orderly sequence on the oak settee beside it. She liked to watch the precision with which he always arranged these things. "Why should I be sure?" He turned and faced her. "Miss Dear," he said to himself softly, "Miss Dear," and she saw that in his eyes which made the moment simpler for her to bear. She led the way into her drawing-room. "Light the candles," he said, "this firelight is too good to drown in a flood of electric light!" "Is that better?" she asked. They were standing before the fireplace; the embers had burned to a gentle glowing radiance. Of the four candles she had lighted, the wick of only one had taken fire and was burning. Nancy's breath caught in her throat, and she could not steady it. Collier Pratt took a step forward and held out his arms. "No, this is better," he said. "I thought there was some place in the world where I could be--comfortable," Nancy said, when she finally lifted her head from the shoulder of the shabby, immaculate black suit, "but I wasn't quite sure." "Are you sure now, you little wonder woman?" He held her at the length of his arm for a moment and gazed curiously into her face. Then he drew her slowly toward him again. She met his kiss bravely, so bravely that he understood the quality of her courage. "I didn't realize that this would be the first time," he said. "There couldn't have been any other time," Nancy breathed, "you know that." "I didn't know," Collier Pratt said thoughtfully. "Oh! you little American girls, with your strange, straight-laced little bodies and your fearless souls!" "Betty told you something," Nancy cried, scarcely hearing him, "but it wasn't true. There never has been anybody else." She put her head down on his shoulder again. "It is comfortable here," she said, "where I belong."