"But I do. Listen!" He threw another quick glance at the absorbed children as he reached out and took possession of her hand. "It all came to me, back there at the window--the dreariness, the emptiness of--everything, without _you_. And I saw then what you've been to me every day this past week. How I've watched for you and waited for you, and how everything I did and said and had was just--something for you. And I knew then that I--I loved you. You see, I--I never loved any one before,"--the boyish red swept to his forehead as he laughed whimsically,--"and so I--I didn't recognize the symptoms!" With the lightness of his words he was plainly trying to hide the shake in his voice. "Helen, you--will?" "Oh, but I--I--!" Her eyes were frightened and pleading. "Don't you _care_ at all?" She turned her head away. "If you don't, then won't you let me _make_ you care?" he begged. "You said you had no one now to care--at all; and I care so much! Won't you let--" Somewhere a door shut. With a low cry Helen Barnet pulled away her hand and sprang to her feet. She was down on the rug with the children, very flushed of face, when Mrs. Allen appeared in the library doorway. "Oh, here you are!" Mrs. Allen frowned and spoke a bit impatiently. "I've been hunting everywhere for you. I supposed you were in the nursery. Won't you put the boys into fresh suits? I have friends calling soon, and I want the children brought to the drawing-room when I ring, and left till I call you again." "Yes, ma'am." With a still more painful flush on her face Helen Barnet swept the blocks into her apron, rose to her feet, and hurried the children from the room. She did not once glance at the young man standing by the window. Mrs. Allen tossed her nephew a smile and a shrug which might have been translated into "You see what we have to endure--so tiresome!" as she, too, disappeared. Burke Denby did not smile. He did frown, however. He felt vaguely irritated and abused. He wished his aunt would not be so "bossy" and disagreeable. He wished Helen would not act so cringingly submissive. As if she-- But then, it would be different right away, of course, as soon as he had made known the fact that she was to be his wife. Everything would be different. For that matter, Helen herself would be different. Not only would she hold her head erect and take her proper place, but she would not--well, there were various little ways and expressions which she would drop, of course. And how beautiful she was! How sweet! How dear! And how she had suffered in her loneliness! How he would love to make for her a future all gloriously happy and tender with his strong, encircling arms! It was a pleasant picture. Burke Denby's heart quite swelled within him as he turned to leave the room.