XVI.
For a little time, perhaps as long as it took his heart to pound thrice in wild tumult, they confronted each other in silence. Then—"Eve!" he cried, softly; and—
"You!" she whispered.
Again a silence, in which he could have sworn that he heard his heart beating with gladness and the stars singing in the heavens.
"I—I wasn't sleepy," she said, breathlessly.
"Nor I. I didn't want to sleep. I wanted"—he stepped through the gateway and seized the hand that lay against her breast—"you."