out her headache.

"It is better," she answered in scarcely audible accents.

"Why, you poor child! I hope you are not going to be ill! Have you been
racing in the sun without your hat?"

"No. I haven't been out of doors since yesterday."

"What's the matter, little Berenice? Has some one been cross with her?"
She pushed him from her violently.

"Hubert Falcroft, when you treat me as a woman and not as a child--"

"But I am treating you as a woman," he said. Her dark face became
tragic. She had emerged from girlhood in a few hours. And as he held her
closer some perverse spirit entered into his soul. Her vibrating youth
and beauty forced him to gaze into her blazing eyes until he saw the
pupils contract.

"Let me go!" she panted. "Let me free! I am not a doll. Go to your
portrait and worship it. Let me free!"

"And what if I do not?" Something of her rebellious feeling filled his
veins. He felt younger, stronger, fiercer. He put his arms about her
neck and, after a silent battle, kissed her. Then she pushed by him and
disappeared. He could see nothing, after the shock of the adventure, for
some moments, and the semi-obscurity of the atelier was grateful to his
eyes. A picture stood on the easel, but it was not, he fancied, the
portrait. He went to the centre of the room where hung the cords that
controlled the curtains covering the glass roof. Then in the flood of
light he barely recognized the head of Elaine. It was on the easel, and
with a sharp pain at his heart he saw across the face a big crimson
splash.

* * * * *

III

MOON-RAYS

The dewy brightness of tangled blush roses had faded in the vague
twilight; through the aisles of the little wood leading to the pool the
light timidly flickered as Hubert and Elaine walked with the hesitating
steps of perplexed persons. They had not spoken since they left the
house--there in a few hurried words he told her of the accident and
noted with sorrow the look of anguish in her eyes. Without knowing why,
they went in the direction of the wall.

There was no moon when they reached the highroad. It would rise later,
Elaine said in her low, slightly monotonous voice. Hubert was so stunned
by the memory of his ruined picture that he forgot his earlier encounter
with Berenice--that is, in describing it he had failed to minutely
record his behaviour. But in the cool evening air his conscience became
alive and he guiltily wondered whet