Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/266

256 her golden hair; the look of solemn, earnest seeking deepened on her face, but into it there came a tenderness, an ineffable love, and, lifting her face to mine, she repeated in a low whisper the dear old childish words:—

"Shall I kiss you, Mr. Will?"—

An hour later the bent figures of the beloved Dominie and his wife came slowly up the path under the firs. Arm in arm, with an unconscious and touching revelation of tenderness in their clinging hold on each other, they paused under the trees and looked up at the stars.

"Let us go and meet them, Ally," I said.

Hand in hand we walked swiftly toward them. When they first saw us they stopped in surprise for a second, then hurried on with ejaculations of joy and wonder. Mrs. Allen's clear-visioned eyes saw all in the first moment of our meeting.

"Oh, my children!" she exclaimed, and even in the twilight I saw tears of gladness in her eyes. "Husband, husband," she continued, "they love each other."

Dear Dominie's slower sense but dimly comprehended her meaning. As he looked into our faces it grew clear to him, and, lifting up both his hands, he blessed us. Then Ally left me and clung to her father's arm, and we walked slowly homeward. Mrs. Allen and I lingered at the door.

"I used to hope for this," she said, "in the first months of our knowing thee. Thee has the