Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/275

 Wilsnach, an hour before, might have been in some doubt as to his answer to that question. In his austerely busy life there had been neither time nor place for women. But now he found the gaze of a pair of dumbly appealing eyes something distinctly more than pleasant. He realized that the pressure of a pair of clinging arms could make a man dizzily and absurdly happy. He discovered something strangely desirable in the lips murmuring so close to his own. They seemed to cannonade the cemented stronghold of his bachelorhood with explosion of emotions against which he stood quite unfortified. And forsaking reason himself, he bent lower and for the second time pressed his lips against the warmth of her responding lips.

"I love you, Sadie!" a voice that did not seem like his own voice was saying. And if the truth of that declaration had not before been plain to him, he now found it both pleasant enough and plausible enough to reiterate. And even more bewildering was the quiet light of rapture which his words had produced in the intent face staring up into his.

"I'd go through Hell for yuh!" she solemnly announced. She could not make love as other women did. Life had been too hard with her. But with