Her lips quivered as she smiled back. "At least you are getting better nights," she said.
"Yes, I sleep very well," he answered. "I want to know you are doing the same."
Her face shone as though reflecting the lights of a city seen from afar. "Oh yes, I sleep," she said. "And sometimes I dream that I have really found the peaks of Paradise. But before I reach the summit—I am awake."
He drew her to him, and kissed her. "It is better that you should wake, dear," he said.
She returned his kiss with tenderness, but her eyes were fixed and distant. "Some day the dream will come true, Stumpy," she said softly. "And I shall find him there where he has been waiting for me all these years."
"But not yet, Isabel," murmured Scott, and there was pleading in his voice.
She looked at him for a moment ere she turned to re-enter the room in which Dinah lay. "Not just yet," she answered softly. "Good night, dear! Good night!"
The strange light was still upon her face as she went, and Scott looked after her with a faint, wistful smile about his mouth. As he went to his own room, he passed his hand across his forehead with a gesture of unutterable weariness.