"Last night, when you told me of the white house in the aspens, I did not tell you that I had just come from there--from Aniston." She made an exclamation of wonder. "Tell me," she said. Sitting with her hand in his, he told of that night's experiences, the fear that had held him as he gazed at her portrait in the library, the secret of the Korean desk that had solaced his misery and sent him back to the father he was not to see. At mention of the will she threw out her hand with a passionate gesture. "The money is not mine!" she cried. "It is yours! He intended to change it--he told me so the day he died. Oh, if you think I--" "No, no," he said gently. "There is no resentment, no false pride in my love, Jessica. I am thinking of you--and of Aniston. You would have me go back, would you not?" She looked up smiling and slowly shook her head. "You are a blind guesser," she said. "Don't you think I know what is in your mind? Not Aniston, Hugh. Sometime, but not now--not yet. It is nearer than that!" His eyes flowed into hers. "You understand! Yes, it is here. This is where I must finish my fight first. Yesterday I would have left Smoky Mountain for ever, because you were here. Now--" "I will help you," she said. "All the world besides counts nothing if only we are together! I could live in a cabin here on the mountain always, in a Forest of Arden, till I grow old, and want nothing but that--and you!" She paused, with a happy laugh, her eye turned away. [Illustration] A log cabin, but a home glorified by her presence! In a dozen words she had sketched a sufficient Paradise. As he did not answer, she faced him with crimsoning cheeks, then reading his look she suddenly threw her arms about his neck. "Hugh," she cried, "we belong to each other now. There is no one else to consider, is there? I want to be to you what I haven't been--to bear things with you, and help you." He kissed her eyes and hair. "You _have_ helped, you _do_ help me, Jessica!" he urged. "But I am jealous for your love. It must not be offended. The town of Smoky Mountain must not sneer--and it would sneer now." "Let it!" she exclaimed resentfully. "As if I would care!" "But _I_ would care," he said softly. "I want to climb a little higher first." She was silent a moment, her fingers twisting the fallen leaves. "You don't want them to know that I am your wife?" "Not yet--till I can see my way." She nodded and smiled and the cloud lifted from her face. "You must know best," she said. "This is what I shall do, then. I shall leave the sanatorium to-morrow. The people there are nothing to me, but the town of Smoky Mountain is yours, and I must be a part of it, too. I am going to the Mountain Valley House. Mrs. Halloran will take care of me." She sprang to her feet as she added: "I shall go to see her about it now."