"Good-night!" "Good-night, _cherie_!" His lips were close, so close to her forehead.

He could even feel her hair blow lightly against his face.

But he remained rigid as a sentry--watchful and silent and still.
Once during that long night she stirred in her sleep--stirred and nestled closer to him with an inarticulate murmur; and he turned, moving for the first time, and gathered her into his arms, holding her there like an infant against his breast.

Thereafter she slept a calm, unbroken slumber, serenely unconscious of him and serenely content.
And the man sat motionless, with eyes wide to the darkness, grave and reverent as the eyes of a warrior keeping his vigil on the eve of knighthood.

But his heart throbbed all night long like the beat of a drum that calls men into action..