Page:A fool in spots (IA foolinspots00riveiala).pdf/249

Rh At last, one day, the physician told them he would live and be himself in health again. Sweetly fell these words, like dew on dying flowers—their hearts' throbbing chords were softly soothed.

They were sitting together in their own room. Robert's face had greatly changed.

"Cherokee," he began, "it isn't long ago that I promised, before God, to love and cherish you always. I have learned that that didn't mean just to-day, or a year from to-day. It meant this: that we must make the fulfillment of our sacred promise to each other the supreme effort of our lives, so long as we both live. I know I have erred, but I promised Marrion on that terrible night that I would be a man. It is two years, to-day, since he risked his own life to save you and me. Tell me, have I kept the faith?"

He held out his hand in a half pleading gesture; she put her's on his shoulders, and throwing her head back with the exuberant happiness of a child, said, with enthusiasm:

"You have! you have! and I do—do love you." She glanced over his shoulder into the mirror.