“My own terms?” she repeated, turning a sudden and searching glance upon him.  “Then tell me, did you hear what I said this afternoon when I first found you?”

He hesitated a moment, and then said, firmly:  “Yes, every word; but, Madge, you must not punish me for what I could not help.  It would not be right.”

“Could you hear me and yet—­”

“I could hear you and yet could not move a muscle until you fainted, and then my intense mental excitement and solicitude must have broken the paralysis caused by the shock of my fall.  Oh, Madge, look at me!  Only a false pride can come between us now.  My love is not worthy to be compared with yours, but it is genuine, and it will—­it will last as long as I do.  I shall bless this accident and all the pain I must suffer if they bring you to me.”

She sprang to his side, and putting her arm around his neck said, “Graydon, on the evening after your return I told you I couldn’t be your sister.  You know why now, and you uttered these words, ’I shall have to take you as you are if I ever find out.’  I meant to win you if I could, but only by being such a girl as I thought you would love.  Now you know the mystery of the little ghost, and you can bring to me that ‘idiot’ who didn’t return my love, as often as you choose.”

“Thank Heaven for what I escaped!  Thank God for what I have won!” he exclaimed.

“Won?  Nonsense! You have been won, not I. Oh, Graydon, wouldn’t you have been amazed and horrified if you had been told, years ago, that the little ghost would go deliberately to work to woo a man and take him from another girl?  Think how dreadful it sounds! but you shall now know the worst.”

“It’s music that will fill my life with gladness.  How exquisitely fine your nature is, that you could do this with such absolute maidenly reserve!  Suppose I had become Stella Wildmere’s bondman?”

“I should have gone back to Santa Barbara, and kept my secret.”

“Horrible!”

“I said you knew all, but I am mistaken.  Now, don’t be shocked back into your kind of unconsciousness again.  I did another horrid thing.  I listened and learned about the plot by which Arnault meant to bring Miss Wildmere to a decision against you;” and she told him the circumstances, and what had passed between herself and Henry.

His arm tightened around her almost convulsively.  “Madge,” he cried, “you have not only brought me happiness—­you have saved me from a bitter, lifelong self-reproach far worse than poverty.  How can I ever show sufficient devotion in return for all this?”

“By being sensible, and telling me how to make signals, now that it is as dark as it will be this moonlight night.”

“Let me lean on you, as I ever shall figuratively hereafter.  We will go down to the outlook you found, build another fire, and wave burning brands.”