"Molly!"
They both paused.
"It can't be! Oh, you frightened me, Will! It can't be you!"
But he had her in his arms now. At first he could only push back her hair, stroke her cheek, until at last the rush of life and youth came back to them both, and their lips met in the sealing kiss of years. Then both were young again. She put up a hand to caress his brown cheek. Tenderly he pushed back her hair.
[pg 377]
"Will! Oh, Will! It can't be!" she whispered again and again.
"But it is! It had to be! Now I'm paid! Now I've found my fortune!"
"And I've had my year to think it over, Will. As though the fortune mattered!"
"Not so much as that one other thing that kept you and me apart. Now I must tell you--"