"We've thought we understood him all these years," he said steadily, "but at last I realize that we haven't at all. It would be humorous if it hadn't been so near to tragedy, so very near. Anyway, it's clear now. Harry Randall sees it too. That's why he wouldn't stay. Steve Armstrong never cared for you really at all, Elice. He thought he did--but he didn't. It was himself he cared for; and a fancy. Neither you nor I nor any one can change him or help him more than temporarily. We're free. He'll stand or go under as it was written in the beginning." The voice lowered until it throbbed with the conviction that was in the speaker's soul. "No man alive who really cared could find inspiration where he found it. The world is before us and we're free, Elice, free!" Unconsciously, in answer to an instinct she obeyed without reason, the girl too arose, an exaltation in her face no artist could reproduce nor words describe. "Yes," she said. "I see it all too at last. We've all been blind." She caught her breath at the thought that would intrude, force it back as she would. "And still we came so near, so very, very near--" "Yes; but it's past." The man opposite was advancing. Not the impassive, cold Darley Roberts the world knew, but the other Darley Roberts revealed to one alone; the isolate human alone and lonely. "But it's past, past, do you hear? And to-day is December the sixth, our anniversary--ours." He halted, waiting. He smiled, with a tenderness infinite. "Is it 'Darley' still, Elice? Won't you come and say it again?" THE END Transcriber's Notes: Illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph. Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved as printed, along with the author's punctuation style, except as noted below [the correction is enclosed in brackets]. Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Pg. 169: the old man re-repeated [repeated] The following words have been found in both hyphenated and unhyphenated form in the original text: top-coat (topcoat), up-stairs (upstairs), near-by (nearby), house-warming (housewarming). Their original hyphenation has been preserved.