g?"

Her face flushed, then grew pale, then flushed again. In the world of
adoring love in her eyes he read his answer. She put forth both hands,
which he seized.

"I don't know," she said slowly. "Yes, but, I do know. Yet, listen,
Alaric"--it was the first time she had ever used his name, and it came
out sweetly--"are you sure you mean what you say? For instance,
supposing you were to go away for six months, would you come back and
say it all the same?"

"I've no intention of trying any such idiotic experiment, and,
fortunately, such an utterly unnecessary one. Well?"

"How long have we known each other?" she answered. "Barely a month,
certainly not more. We have been thrown together all day and every day.
Are you sure that such propinquity has not something to do with it?"

He laughed good-humouredly, tolerantly.

"That's all very well," she went on, "but this is serious. What can you
see in me, you who have seen so much and so many, the not even _half_
educated daughter of an up-country trader, whose bringing up has given
little opportunity for the ordinary refinements, let alone for acquiring
accomplishments? And with all these deficiencies I should very soon
pall upon you."

"I shall have to laugh directly," he answered. "Half educated? Why,
you've been arguing against yourself with a grip of your points which
would be worthy of the smartest K.C., and with a terseness which would
not earn him his fee. What can I see in you?"--and his tone became very
vehement and very serious. "I can see in you attributes which, taken
together, should render any woman irresistible--a rare physical
attractiveness, an unbounded power of sympathy, and a staunchness that
would stand by a man through the worst that might befall him. Is that
sufficient, or must I go on adding to it?"

Verna's eyes had filled as he was speaking. The words, the tone, seemed
to burn through her whole being; but there was a smile upon her lips--
very soft, very sweet.

"And can you see--really see all that in _me_, Alaric?"

"All that, and a great deal more," he answered vehemently, drawing her
to him. "So now give me your first kiss."

"Darling, I will."

The sun streamed hotter and hotter into the open space, frogs croaked
among the reeds surrounding the burnished surface of the pool; a lemur,
swinging and bounding on high among the twisted tree-trunks, stared
down, blinking his beady eyes and cocking his pointed snout; a la