She took a deep breath and went on.  “You might as well know, Mr. Brainard, that Maggie is going to live with me for the present—­that, of course, she is going to be a very great burden to me—­and it will be a great favor to me if you’ll marry her soon and take her off my hands.”  And then the voice that had tried to keep itself brisk and even, quavered with a sudden sob.  “For Heaven’s sake, dear children—­ don’t be fools!”

And with that she was gone.

For an instant Larry continued to gaze at Maggie’s slender, trembling figure.  But something approaching a miracle—­a very human miracle—­had just happened.  All those doubts, fears, indecisions, unexpressed desires, agonies of self-abasement, which might have delayed their understanding and happiness for weeks and months, had been swept into nothingness by the incisive kindliness of Miss Sherwood.  In one minute she had said all they might have said in months; there was nothing more to say.  There was nothing left of the past to discuss.  Before them was only the fact of that immediate moment, and the future.

Tremblingly, silently, Larry crossed to that trembling, silent figure in white.  She did not retreat.  Tremblingly he took her hands and looked down into her dark eyes.  They were now flowing tears, but they met his squarely, holding back nothing.  The look in her eyes answered all he desired to know just then, for he gathered her tight into his arms.  Wordlessly, but with a sharp, convulsive sob, she threw her arms about his neck—­and thus embracing, shaken with sharp sobs, they stood while the minutes passed, not a single word having been spoken.  And so it was that these two, both children of the storm, at last came together. . . .

Presently Joe Ellison chanced to step unsuspectingly into the room.  Seeing what he did, he silently tiptoed out.  There was a garden chair just outside his door.  Into this he sank and let his thin face fall into his hands.  His figure shook and hot tears burned through his fingers.  For his heart told him that his great dream was at last come true.