"OH, FLOWER! YOU CARED LIKE THIS?"
When at last she found speech possible, she said, "If I had gone—"
"Hush, my perfect one," the doctor said. "You were quite right." But she laid her hand over his mouth, with a swift, silencing gesture, then took his hand and kissed it, with infinite humility and tenderness.
"Deryck," she said, "it is your love which has been perfect. I have been quite wrong. But God in His infinite mercy has heard my prayer and given me another chance. Oh, my beloved, I have but a poor white rose to offer you—a crushed and faded thing; but it is all your own. Give me another chance—oh, Deryck—a chance to serve. It is all I ask, it is all I want—to serve; because now, indeed, I truly love."
Then the doctor knew that at last life held for him all that his heart had craved through hungry years.
"Mary," he said, "oh, Mary!"