“You’ve come at last,” says she. “He’ve been waiting for you––out there in the dark.”

“Judith!” says I.

She came confidingly close to me.

“I’ve a word to say to you, maid,” says I.

“An’ you’re a true man?” she demanded.

“’Tis a word,” says I, “that’s between a man an’ a maid. ’Tis nothing more.”

She held me off. “An’ you’re true,” she demanded, “to them that have loved you?”

“As may or may not appear,” I answered.

“Ah, Dannie,” she whispered, “I cannot doubt you!”

I remember the scent of the lilacs––I remember the dusk––the starlit sky.