The hour was scarcely eleven, but Ella had given no notice of her intention to pay a visit to her friend that night.

When the girl raised her hands with a laugh of admiration, of pleasure, Ella grasped her hands with both of her own and drew her into the drawing room without a word.

Then with a cry,--a laugh and a cry mingled,--she literally flung herself into the girl's arms and kissed her convulsively a dozen times, on the throat, on the neck, on the shoulder whereon her head lay.
"My darling, my darling!" she cried,--and now and again her voice was broken with a sob,--"my darling Phyllis! I have come to you--I want to be with you--to be near you--to keep my arms about you, so tightly that no one can pluck us asunder.

Oh, you don't know what men are--they would pluck us asunder if they could; but they can't now.

With you I am safe--that is why I have come to you, my Phyllis.