chair. Mechanically her hands went to the litter on his desk and she had straightened it all before she realised that there was no longer any need. To-morrow would bring a voice she did not know; would usher a stranger into her room to take her measure from behind a barrier of formality. For the rest there would be work, and food, and sleep. These things would make life--life that had been love. She put on her hat and coat. The room seemed smaller somehow and shabbier. The shaded lights that had invited, now merely irritated; the whimsical disorder of books and papers spoke only of an uncompleted task. Gone was the glamour and the promise and the good comradeship. He had taken them all. She faced to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow empty-handed--in her heart the memory of words that had seared and healed in a breath, and the dead dream of a kiss. Her throat ached with the pain of it.And then suddenly she heard him coming back! She stiffened. For one instant, mind and body, she was rigid with the sheer wonder of it. Then, as the atmosphere of the room surged back, tense with vitality, her mind leapt forward in welcome. He was coming back, coming back! The words hammered themselves out to the rhythm of the eager tread that never lingered so much as a second's space on its way to her, that stumbled slightly on the threshold of her presence.By some queer, reflex twist of memory, her hands brushed imaginary raindrops from her face and strayed uncertainly to where the wet had lain on her hair.The door opened and closed behind him. "I've come back. I've come back to kiss you. Dear--_dear_!" Her outflung hand checked him in his stride towards her. Words came stammering to her lips."Why--but--this isn't--I don't understand! All you said--it was true, surely? It was cruel of you to make me know it was true and then come back!""Let me kiss you--let me, let me!" He was overwhelming her, ignoring her resistance. "I must kiss you, I must kiss you." He said it again and again."No, no, you shan't--you can't play with me! You said you were afraid for me, and you made me afraid, too--of my weakness--of the danger--of my longing for you----""Let me kiss you! Yes, you shall let me; you _shall_ let me." His arms held her, his face touched hers."Aren't you afraid any more? Has a miracle happened--may we kiss in spite of to-morrow?"Inch by inch she was relaxing. All thought was slipping away into a great white light that held no to-morrows, nor any fear of them, nor of herself, nor of anything. The light crept to her feet, rose to her heart, her head. Through the radiance came his words."Yes, a miracle. Oh, my dear--my little child! I've come back to kiss you, little child.""Kiss me, then," she said against his lips.
IIIHazily she was aware that he had released her; that 

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