all, and that seems to have been at
least an hour ago. Don't you understand, Sir Max?" she continued,
laughing softly and speaking as if in jest; "the longer I know you the
more shamefully eager I become; but that is the way with a maid and a
man. She grows more eager and he grows less ardent, and I doubt not the
time will soon arrive, Sir Max, when you will not come at all, and I
shall be left waiting under the trees to weep in loneliness."

Max longed to speak the words that were in his heart and near his lips,
but he controlled himself under this dire temptation and remained
silent. After a long pause she stepped close to him and asked:--

"Did you not want me to come?"

Max dared not tell her how much he had wanted her to come, so he went to
the other extreme--he must say something--and, in an excess of
caution, said:--

"I would not have asked you to come, Fraeulein, though I much desired it;
but sober judgment would prompt me to wish that--that is, I--ah,
Fraeulein, I did not want you to come to the bridge."

She laughed softly and said:--

"Now, Little Max, you do not speak the truth. You did want me to come,
else why do you come to the bridge? Why do you come?"

In view of all the facts in the case the question was practically
unanswerable unless Max wished to tell the truth, so he evaded
by saying:--

"I do not know."

She looked quickly up to his face and stepped back from him:--

"Did you come to see Twonette? I had not thought of her. She is but
drained milk and treacle. Do you want to see her, Sir Max? If so, I'll
return to the house and send her to you."

"Fraeulein, I need not answer your question," returned Max, convincingly.

"But I love Twonette. I know you do not come to see her, and I should
not have spoken as I did," said Yolanda, penitently.

Perhaps her penitential moods were the most bewitching--certainly they
were the most dangerous--of all her many phases.

"You know why I come to the bridge, even though I do not," said Max.
"Tell me, Fraeulein, why I come."

"That is what you may tell me. I came to hear it," she answered softly,
hanging her head.

"I may not speak, Fraeulein," he replied, with a deep, regretful sigh.
"What I said to you on the road from Basel will be true as long as I
live, but we agreed that it should not again be spoken between us. For
your sake more than for mine it is better that I remain silent."

Yolanda hung her head, while her fingers were nervousl