"Don't you know?"

"No-o."

"Then I'll tell you. Yes, I will tell you," with sudden courage. "I

was at Delilah's this morning, and I saw your picture, and what you had

written on it----"

He stared at her, with a sense of surging relief. If it was only that

he had to explain about--Lilah. A smile danced in his eyes.

"Well?"

"I know you like to--play the game--but I didn't think you'd go as far

as that----"

"How far?"

"Oh, you know."

"I don't."

"Barry!"

"I don't. I wish you'd tell me what you mean, Leila."

"I will." Her eyes were not reproachful now, they were blazing. She

had risen, and with her hands tucked into her muff, and her veil

blowing about her flushed cheeks, she made her accusation. "You wrote

on that picture, 'To the One Girl--Forever.' Is that the way you think

of Delilah, Barry?"

"No. It is the way I think of you. And how did that picture happen to

be in Delilah's possession? I sent it to you."

"To me?"

"Yes, I took it over to you yesterday, and left it with one of the

maids--a new one. I intended, to go in and give it to you, but when

she said you had callers, I handed her the package----"

"And I thought--oh, Barry, what else could I think?"

She was so little and lovely in her tender contrition, that he flung

discretion to the winds. "You are to think only one thing," he said,

passionately, "that I love you--not anybody else, not ever anybody

else. I haven't dared put it into words before. I haven't dared ask

you to marry me, because I haven't anything to offer you yet. But I

thought you--knew----"

Her little hand went out to him. "Oh, Barry," she whispered, "do you

really feel that way about me?"

"Yes. More than I have said. More than I can ever say."

He drew her down beside him on the bench. "Our world won't want us to

get married, Leila; they will say that I am such a boy. But you will

believe in me, dear one?"

"Always, Barry."

"And you love me?"

"Oh, you know it."

"Yes, I know it," he said, in a moved voice, as he raised her hands and

kissed them, "I know it--thank God."




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