Then I laughed. Lord, how I laughed! Twenty-four years I had lived, and until now I had never known a real joke, one that made the heart beat quicker, and sent the blood singing through the veins; that made the fingers tingle, the ears burn, and brought tears to the eyes. I don't suppose that other people would have thought this one so amusing. The young doctor upstairs might not have feigned a smile, for instance. That was what made it all the better for me, for it was my own joke and Mary's, and in all the world I was the only man who could see the fun of it. "When you turn that collar up again I am going," said I. So she sprang away from me, laughing, and quick as I reached out to seize her, she avoided me. "You know I can't catch you," I cried, taunting her, "so I must wait." As she stood there before me quietly, her hands clasped, her eyes looking up into mine, I saw how fair she was, and I wondered. The picture of Weston in the woods, standing off there gazing at me, came back then, and with it a vague feeling of fear and distrust. I saw myself as Weston saw me, and I marvelled. "Mary," I said, "this morning up there in the woods I told Robert Weston everything, and he stood off just as you are standing now. It seemed to me he wondered how it could be true, and now I wonder too. Maybe it's all a mistake." "It's not a mistake, Mark," the girl said, and she came to me again and put a hand on each shoulder and looked up. "If I did not care for you I'd never have given you the promise I did last night. But I do care for you, Mark, more than for anyone else in the world. You are big and strong and good--that's why--it's all any woman can ask. You are true, Mark--and that's more than most men----" "But, Mary, there's Tim," I protested, for I did not care to usurp to myself the sum of all the virtues allotted to my sex. "Tim?" said she lightly, as though she had never heard of him. "Yes, Tim," I said shortly. "Why did you choose me instead of a lad like Tim?" "Mark, I care for you more than anyone else in the world," said Mary. "But do you love me?" I asked quickly. "I think I do," she said. But reaching up, she turned my collar again and buttoned my coat against the storm. XIV