Page:The Star in the Window.pdf/233

Rh colored, slow-moving disk, began creeping up slowly over the edge of nearby moorlands, and Reba suddenly drew in her breath very deep, and ever so softly exclaimed, "Oh, see!"

It was then that Chadwick Booth abruptly, almost roughly, threw his arm behind her and kissed her—as he had been hungry for days and days to kiss her, as Reba had never before been kissed in her life!

Afterward they groped their way back, somehow, to the waiting automobile, got into it, and drove away; and all the fifty-mile run back to Boston there passed between them only the most casual of remarks—brief, trivial little sentences, such as, "That was a close shave," from Dr. Booth when another car all but side-wiped his mud-guards. Or, from Reba, "Remember, there's a policeman-trap in this town." And his brief response, "I'll be careful."

Once back in her room at the Alliance, Reba undressed methodically enough and went to bed—but not to sleep.

He loved her! Chadwick Booth! And like that! And she loved him, too! She confessed it now without shame. She had loved him ever since that night on the marble terrace. He would ask her to marry him to-morrow, or the day after—next time they met. Think of it! She beloved, and asked in marriage by Chadwick Booth! She—Reba Jerome! Oh, the gulf between them yawned frightfully wide. It scared her a little. His women friends would make her appear awkward and raw, she feared. And how would his mother, and his sisters receive her? Had he a mother and sisters? Her knowledge of his home-life was very