He had flung another armful of wood upon the fire. Now, picking Desirée up as he might have lifted a baby, he returned to the stump seat. Holding her in his arms, close to his breast, he sat there, and gazed into the flames. Tired, deliriously content, she nestled to him with a sigh of absolute rapture. There they remained; still; ineffably beatific; at rest; while the fire snapped merrily and the dog at their feet growlingly pursued numberless coveys of low-flying partridges through the aisles of dreamland. Then-- “I don’t s’pose I’ll ever reely understand it,” mused Caleb. “Here I’ve always been thinkin’ I looked on you like you were my daughter an’ that I was a million years older’n you’d ever get to be. An’ now in just one second the whole world turns inside out, an’ I land in heaven; I’m talkin’ ’bout ‘heaven’ to-night like any sky-scout, ain’t I? But it sort of seems the only word.” “It is very near us,” she made reply, softly. “See,” raising herself in his arms and looking out over the star-gleaming mists below them. “See, the world is new. The seas have swept over all its old sins and follies and sordid workaday life. This island stands alone in the universe. All the rest is engulfed. And you and I are the only people on God’s new earth. We have risen above the old life of mistakes and blindness. Here,--alone--in our new marvel world,--forever and ever.” Her head sank on his breast. He buried his face in the fragrant wonder of her hair. And once more they fell silent. “There ain’t a thing I won’t do for you, girl,” went on Conover, by and by. “All by myself I’ve got rich an’ I’ve won ev’ry fight I’ve made. With you to work for I’ll hammer away at Old Man Dest’ny till I’ve got the whole State in my vest pocket. Yes, an’ I’ll try for the White House, too, before I’m done; if you’d like me to. We’re goin’ to build the biggest, most expensive house, right off, that was ever put up in Granite. We’ll build it on Pompton Av’noo, right in the thick of the swells. White marble we’ll make it. An’ you’ll have all the servants an’ horses an’ joolry an’ everything else you want. There won’t be a thing money can buy that you can’t have. I’ll fight the whole world till I’ve piled up such a fortune as’ll make those great big eyes of yours dazzled. An’ it’ll all be for _you_. All _yours_.”