A great silence held for a moment. The woman's head sank upon the man's shoulder. Madness had passed. Her eyes were fixed upon his with a wonderful earnestness, a splendid calm. "Is this a dream?" "It is the truth!" Through the forest aisles rode the Duke of Spoleto. He saw and paused. "I return beyond the Alps to join the forces of Rudolf of Hapsburg. My men are at your disposal. I shall wait for you on yonder hillock." He wheeled about and was gone. Again silence held for a pace. Presently Ilaria gave a great sigh and looked strangely at the sun. "I have dreamed a dream," she crooned, "and all was dark and fearful. Death seemed near; lurid phantoms,--things from hell! I knew not what I did, nor where I wandered, nor what strange stupor held my soul. All my being cried out to you--yet all was dark about me, horrible midnight, peopled with foul forms! Oh, that night,--that night--" Shivering, she covered her eyes as if trying to banish the memory. "It has passed," she breathed after a pause, during which Francesco had taken her in his arms, kissing her eyes, her lips, and the sylph-like, flower-soft face. "I see the dawn!" "Our dawn!"--Francesco replied, pointing to the hillock beyond. For a time there was a great silence, as if the fates of two souls were being weighed in the scales of destiny. It was Francesco who spoke. "How you have suffered!" She crept very close to him, smiling up at him with the old-time smile through tear-dimmed eyes. "It counts for naught now! Are not you with me?" The sky burned azure above the tree-tops. Transient sunshafts quivered through the vaulted dome of breathless leaves, as slowly Francesco and Ilaria strode towards the camp of the Duke of Spoleto on the sun-bathed hillock above the Nera. The End. * * * * * POLLYANNA _By Eleanor H. Porter_ Author of "Miss Billy," "Miss Billy's Decision," etc. _12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, net $1.25; postpaid $1.40_ "Enter Pollyanna! She is the daintiest, dearest, most irresistible maid you have met in all your journeyings through Bookland. And you forget she is a story girl, for Pollyanna is so real that after your first introduction you will feel the inner circle of your friends has admitted a new member. A brave, winsome, modern American girl, Pollyanna walks into print to take her place in the hearts of all members of the family." _Of "Miss Billy" the critics have written as follows:_ "To say of any story that it makes the reader's heart feel warm and happy is to pay it praise of sorts, undoubtedly. Well, that's the very praise one gives 'Miss Billy.'"--_Edwin L. Shuman in the Chicago Record-Herald._ "The story is delightful and as for Billy herself--she's _all right_!"--_Philadelphia Press._