Was romance, after all, he thought sharply, the only reality?
Could one never escape it?
While he looked down on her she had stirred, as if she were awaking from a dream, or a memory, and stretched out her hand.
"Is it ever too late," she responded, "as long as there is any happiness left in the world ?" She smiled as she answered him; but suddenly her smile faded and that faint shadow passed again over her face.

In the very moment when he had bent toward her, there had drifted before her gaze the soft anxious eyes of Alice Rokeby, and the look in them as they followed John Benham that evening a week ago.
"Oh, my dear," said Benham softly.

Then his voice broke and he drew back hurriedly, for a figure had darkened the low window, and a minute afterward the door opened and Patty Vetch entered the room.
"The latch was not fastened, so I came in," she began, and stopped as her look fell on Benham.

"I--I hope you don't mind," she added in confusion..