Her look was startled, apprehensive, but her eyes gave consent.

“These hours have been the biggest of my life.”

I stopped. Betty was looking at the ground. And suddenly all the winds of the world seemed to be drawing me toward her, urging me to throw myself beside her, and a stream of words was upon my tongue.

I reached up, plucked a twig of pine from its cleft, and when I had stripped its needles one by one my self-control had returned.

“So you see I’m a winner,” I laughed. “You mustn’t worry one little worry about me. Whatever happens I’m ahead of the game.”

It was a long time before she spoke, and then she did so without looking up.

“Is—that—true?”

“Can’t you see it is?”

She nodded without looking to see.

“And—is that—all?”