We are sitting before the library fire, I on a low stool, with my head leaning against 'Duke's knee, he with one hand round my neck, while with the other he every now and then ruffles, or, as he fondly believes, smoothes, my "nut-brown locks." For the last three or four minutes no words have passed between us. I think we are too happy to give way to the mere expression of our feelings. Suddenly, all in one moment, as it seems to us, without any warning, we hear a loud voice outside the door, a heavy footstep, a rapid turning of the handle, and George Ashurst is in the room. I make one desperate effort to rise and recover the dignity my attitude has destroyed, but Duke, with a strong detaining grasp, prevents me. I get only as far as my knees, and from that position glare at my brother-in-law as though I would willingly devour him. "I took your offer of a bed, after all," he is beginning, when something in the situation strikes him as odd. He meets my eyes, and breaks down. "Oh, ah! I had no idea--I didn't know, you know." He stops, hopelessly, looking as ludicrously silly and puzzled as even I could wish him. "Neither did I," declares Marmaduke, with a laugh, "until half an hour ago. But it is all right, Ashurst; we have made it up; and when I do go abroad, I will take my wife with me." "Didn't I tell you all along how it was?" cries George, enthusiastically (he had not; but by a superhuman effort I refrain from contradicting him). "I declare to you," says he subsiding into a chair, "I was never so glad of anything in all my life before." There is a minute's pause. Then 'Duke, turning, lays a light caressing touch upon my shoulder as I kneel beside him. He speaks in a very low tone. "We are all very glad, I think--and thankful," he says, with the softest, tenderest smile. All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and the sorrow; All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatisfied longing; All the dull, deep pain, and constant, anguish of patience! End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Phyllis, by Margaret Hungerford