your expense--at the cost of
one atom of my regard for you. As I care for you now, so have I from the
beginning; so will I to the end; care more for you, perhaps; but never
less, Louis. And that I know."

More deeply moved than he perhaps cared to be, he walked on slowly in
silence, measuring his step to hers. In the peace of the midnight world,
in the peace of her presence, he was aware of a tranquillity, a rest
that he had not known in weeks. Vaguely first, then uneasily, he
remembered that he had not known it since her departure, and shook off
the revelation with instinctive recoil--dismissed it, smiled at it to
have done with it. For such things could not happen.

The woods were fragrant as they passed; a little rill, swelling from the
thicket of tangled jewel-weed, welled up, bubbling in the starlight. She
knelt down and drank from her cupped hands, and offered him the same
sweet cup, holding it fragrantly to his lips.

And there, on their knees under the stars, he touched her full
child-like lips with his; and, laughing, she let him kiss her again--but
not a third time, swaying back from her knees to avoid him, then rising
lithely to her feet.

"The poor nymph and the great god Kelly!" she said; "a new hero for the
pantheon: a new dryad to weep over. Kelly, I believe your story of your
golden cloud, now."

"Didn't you credit it before?"

"No."

"But now that I've kissed you, you do believe it?"

"Y-yes."

"Then to fix that belief more firmly--"

"Oh, no, you mustn't, Kelly--" she cried, her soft voice hinting of
hidden laughter. "I'm quite sure that my belief is very firmly fixed.
Hear me recite my creed. Credo! I believe that you are the great god
Kelly, perfectly capable of travelling about wrapped in a golden
cloud--"

"You are mocking at the gods!"

"No, I'm not. Who am I to affront Olympus?... Wh-what are you going to
do, Kelly? Fly to the sacred mount with me?"

But she suffered his arm to remain around her waist as they moved slowly
on through the darkness.

"How long are you going to stay? Tell me, Louis. I'm as tragically
curious as Pandora and Psyche and Bluebeard's wife, melted into the one
and eternal feminine."

"I'm going to-morrow."

"Oh-h," she said, softly.

He was silent. They walked on, she with her head bent a little.

"Didn't you want me to?" he asked at length.

"Not if you care to stay.... I never want what those I care for are
indifferent about."

"I am not indi