Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/513

 Will you let me confess I did so very, very much wish to see you once more?"

She smiled a little sadly, and then leaning toward him, "Forgive me for wishing it," she said, and lightly patted the heavy shoulder nearer her.

At that, Tinker again looked hastily toward the doorway; but it remained vacant, and he was reassured. "Listen," he said confidentially, "I got something I want to"

"Wait," she interrupted. "I have somesing I have so wanted to say. In Biskra you wouldn't give me time to say it. You don't understand the gratitude of a woman who is taken out of purgatory, and how much she might wish to do for the man who did such a thing for her. You don't know—perhaps you wouldn't care to know—how much she might like such a man and how difficult it would be for her to think she must say good-bye to him for a last time." She had looked at him steadily as she spoke; but suddenly her fine-lashed eyelids fluttered; she looked away from him, and bit her lower lip. "You" She could not continue immediately.

"Listen!" he said hurriedly. "My family's takin' a nap, I think; but I don't know. I got to"

"Please—it's only a moment," she said; and re-