And that strange new force which had menaced her with eruption during all the days of her hiding, and which these last few minutes had been pulsing upward toward orgasm, was now become resistless.

It was as though a crust, a shell, were being burst and being violently shed.

She thrilled with an amazing, undreamed-of, expanding warmth.
"Do you really--want to--leave me, Jack ?" she whispered.
"I have been invited to leave," said he, "but I have never been invited to come back." With a timidity, shot through with tingling daring, she slipped an arm about his shoulders.
"Then I invite you," she said tremulously.

"Won't you stay, Jack ?" "And Mary ?" said he.
She looked about at her dark-eyed daughter-in-law.
"If Mary will stay, too, I'll--I'll try not to act like my petrified family tree." "What! Was that you that day ?" gasped the horrified Mary.
Mrs.De Peyster slipped her other arm about Mary, and daringly she kissed Mary's fresh young cheek, and she drew the two tightly, almost convulsively, to her.

"Mother!" cried Jack; and the next instant the two pairs of arms were about her.