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"Splendid, Code!" she cried, clapping her hands. "Just what I

knew you would say. And, remember, I will help you all I can and

whenever you need me."

He looked at her gratefully and she thrilled with triumph. At

last there was something more in his glance than the purely

impersonal; he had awakened at last, she thought, to what she

might mean to him.

There followed one of those pauses that often occur when two

people are thinking intensely on different subjects. For perhaps

five minutes the cheerful fire crackled on uninterrupted. Then,

suddenly recollecting himself, Code sprang to his feet and held

out his hand.

"Half-past ten," he said, glancing at the mahogany chime-clock on

the mantelpiece. "I must really go. It has been kind of you to

have me up to-night and tell me all these--"

"Inner secrets of your own life that you never suspected before?"

she laughed.

"Exactly. You have done me a service like the good old friend you

always were."