ay as it is--but unfortunately I've
eaten both legs!"

"Oh! please"--Nella-Rose reached across the narrow space separating
them, she was pleading prettily--"I just naturally admire wings!"

"I bet you do! Well, eat plenty of bread with them. And see here,
Nella-Rose, while you are eating I'm going to read a story to you. It is
the sort of thing that we call melodrama."

"Oh!" This through the dainty nibbling of the coveted wing. "I'm right
fond of stories."

"Keep quiet now!" commanded Truedale and he began the spirited tale of
love and high adventure that, like the tidbits, he knew he had brought
for Nella-Rose!

The warm autumn sun fell upon them for a full hour, then it shifted and
the chill of the approaching evening warned the reader of the flight of
time. He stopped suddenly to find that his companion had long since
forgotten her hunger and food. Across the debris she bent, absorbed and
tense. Her hands were clasped close--cold, little hands they were--and
her big eyes were strained and wonder-filled.

"Is that--all?" she asked, hoarsely.

"Why, no, child, there's more."

"Go on!"

"It's too late! We must get back."

"I--I must know the rest! Why, don't you see, you know how it turns out;
I don't!"

"Shall I tell you?"

"No, no. I want it here with the warm sun and the pines and
your--yourself making it real."

"I do not understand, Nella-Rose!" But as he spoke Truedale began to
understand and it gave him an uneasy moment. He knew what he ought to
do, but knew that he was not going to do it! "We'll have to come again
and hear the rest," was what he said.

"Yes? Why"--and here the shadowy eyes took on the woman-look, the look
that warned and lured the man near her--"I did not know it ever came
like that--really."

"What, Nella-Rose?"

"Why--love. They-all knew it--and took it. It was just like it was
something all by itself. That's not the sort us-all have. Does it only
come that--er--way in mel--melerdrammer?"

"No, little girl. It comes that way in real life when hearts are big
enough and strong enough to bear it." Truedale watched the effect of his
words upon the strange, young face before him. They forced their way
through her ignorance and untrained yearning for love and admiration. It
was a perilous moment, for conscience, on Truedale's part, seemed
drugged and sleeping and Nella-Rose was awakening to that which she had
never known before. Gone, for her, were caprice and mischief; she