Page 100 (1/1)

"Upon--my word!" she breathed aloud

He unclosed his eyes "Now you may dream; you can't avoid it," he observed lazily, and closed his eyes; and neither taunts nor jeers nor questions, nor frag with intent to hit, stirred him from his immobility

She tired of the attehs, hands propping her chin Thoughts, vague as the fitful breeze, arose, lingered, and, like the breeze, faded, dissolved into calh which, cadenced by the far beat of the ebb tide, her heart echoed, beating the steady intervals of time

She had not olden threads flying fro over her, entangling her in unseen htness, draard along diht where, always beyond, vague splendours seemed to beckon

Now lost, now restless, conscious of the perils of the shining path she followed, the rhyth her to false security, she dreamed on awake, unconscious of the tinted sea and sky which stained her eyes to hues ineffable A long while afterward a small cloud floated across the sun; and, in the sudden shadow on the world, doubt sounded its tiny voice, and her ears listened, and the enchant, she looked across the sand at theshe did not know, she did not heed--until, stirring, he looked up; and she paled a trifle and closed her eyes, stunned by the sudden clamour of pulse and heart

When he rose and walked over, she looked up gravely, pouring the last handful of white sand through her stretched fingers

"Did you dreahtly

"Yes"

"Did you drea of my dream can happen," she said "You know that, … don't you?"

"I know that we love … and that we dare not ignore it"

She suffered his ar deeply into hers--a close, sweet caress, a union of lips, and her dimmed eyes' response

"Stephen," she faltered, "how can you make it so hard for me? How can you force uely

"Yes--this treachery to myself--when I cannot hope to be more to you--when I dare not love you too much!"

"You must dare, Sylvia!"

"No, no, no! I know ive up what is offered--for you!--dearly, dearly as I do love you!" She turned and caught his hands in hers, flushed, tre "I cannot--I simply cannot! How can you love me and listen to such wickedness? How can you still care for such a girl as I am--worse than mercenary, because I have a heart--or had, until you took it! Keep it; it is the only part of noble"