ve, my dear one--"

She stirred in his embrace; she turned with a swift passion of entreaty,
putting her fingers across his mouth.

"Ned! Ned! I know. But do this great thing for me! Shut your eyes and
your ears. Forget yesterday, think there will be no to-morrow. Hold this
one moment! Give me my one hour!"

She pleaded as if for life, her body vibrating, her eyes beseeching him;
and his answer was to press her hand harder against his lips, and to
kiss it fervently. He gave no sign of the struggle within him--the doubt
that encompassed him. Something had been demanded of him, and he gave it
loyally.

"There was no yesterday, there will be no to-morrow!" he said. "But
to-day is ours!"

It was the perfect word, spoken perfectly; Maxine's eyes drooped in
supreme content, her lips curled like a pleased child's.

"Ah, but God is good!" she said, and with a child's supreme sweetness,
she lifted her face for his kiss.

CHAPTER XL

The hour was sped, the day past; night, with its dark wings, covered the
eastern sky and, one by one, the stars came forth--stars that gleamed
like new silver in the light sharpness of the September air.

Having closed eyes to the world at the Pre Catelan, Maxine and Blake had
lengthened the coil of their dream as the day waxed. Three o'clock had
seen them driving into the heart of the Bois, and late afternoon had
found them wandering under the formal, interlaced trees in the gardens
of the Petit Trianon. At Versailles they dined, falling a little silent
over their meal, for neither could longer hold at bay the sense that
events impended--that all paths, however devious, however touched by the
enchanter's wand, lead back by an unalterable law to the world of
realities.

With an unspoken anxiety they clung to the last moment of their meal;
and when coffee had been partaken of, Maxine demanded yet another cup
and, resting her elbows on the table, took her face between her hands.

"Ned! Will you not offer me a cigarette?"

He was all confusion at seeming remiss.

"My dear one! A thousand pardons! I did not think--"

"--That I smoked? Are you disappointed?"

He smiled. "It is one charm the more--if there is room for one."

He handed her a cigarette and lighted a match, his eyes resting upon
her as she drew in the first breath of smoke with a quaint seriousness
that smote him with a thought of the boy.

"Dearest," he said, suddenly, "I have been so happy to-day that I have
th