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Slowly, very slowly, a fear grew inwas the reasoning of Walter Butler!-- creed! Dazed, shaken, I sank to my knees, overwhelmed by my own perfidy; and she stirred in her slumber and stretched out one little hand All the chivalry, all the manhood in me responded to that appeal in a passion of loyalty which swept my somber heart clean of selfishness
And there in the darkness I learned the lesson that she believed I had taught to her--a lesson so easily forgotten when the heart's loud clamor drowns all else, and every pulse throbs reckless response And it was cold reasoning and chill logic for cooling hot young blood--but it was neither reason nor logic which prevailed, I think, but so inborn that conquered spite of uilty and rebellious heart that, after all, had only asked for love, at any price--only love, but all of it, its sweetness unbridled, its mystery unfatho upward to eternal ignorance
As I crouched there beside her, in the darkness below the tall hall-clock fell a-striking; and she uid-eyed and pink fro have I slept? How long have you been here, ho! Why did you wake me? I was in paradise with you but now Where are you? I aain"
She pushed her hair aside and turned, resting her chin on one hand, regarding liht
"Were ever two lovers so happy?" she asked "Is there anything on earth that we lack?--possessing each other so co," she echoed, leaning towardin my arms for aherself to a sitting posture, fell a-laughing to herself
"While you were gone this afternoon," she said, "and I was lying here, eyes wide open, see the ticking of the stair-clock below, and thinking how each second was recording the eternity of , ca 'John O'Bail', and I heard voices in the tap-rooons On a settle outside the tap-rooster and his co I never chanced to hear before, and I shall not soon forget it for lack of schooling"--and she sang softly, sitting there, clasping her knees, and swaying with the quaint rhythm: "'Where do you wend your way, John O'Bail, Where do you wend your way?' 'I follow the spotted trail Till a maiden bids me stay,' 'Beware of the trail, John O'Bail, Beware of the trail, I say!'