r recent exercise, she looked
radiantly sweet, in her dark, brilliant beauty.

"Oh, I didn't know anyone was here; least of all, you," she said. "You
startled me."

"Sorceress, remove those unholy spells; for thou art indeed good to look
upon this day."

She flashed a smile at him, throwing back her head with that slight,
quick movement which constituted in her a very subtile and potent charm.

"Flatterer! Do you think so? Well, I am glad."

She dropped her hand down upon his, as it rested on the table, with a
swift, light, caressing pressure, and her eyes softened entrancingly as
they looked up into his. Then she was gone.

He stood there, cool, immovable, self-possessed, outwardly still to all
appearance intent upon the book which he held. But in reality he saw it
not. His whole mental faculties were called into play to endeavour
imagination to retain that soft, light pressure upon his hand. His
resources of memory were concentrated upon the picture of her as she
stood there a moment since,--lovely, smiling, enchanting,--and then the
sombre brain-wave, reminding of the hopelessness, the mockery of life's
inexorable circumstance, would roll in upon his mind; and heart would
seem tightened, crushed, strangled with a pain that was actually
physical--of such acuteness indeed, that, had that organ been weak, he
would be in danger of falling dead on the spot. And this was a part of
the penalty he had to pay for his well-nigh superhuman self-control.

He loved her--this man who loved nothing and nobody living, not even
himself. He loved her--this man whose life was all behind him, and whose
heart was of stone, and whose speech was acrid as the most corrosive
element known to chemistry. But a few "passes" of sweet Sorceress
Lilith's magical wand and the stone heart had split to fragments,
pouring forth, giving release to, a warm well-spring. A well-spring? A
very torrent, deep, fierce, strong, but not irresistible--as yet. Still
there were moments when to keep it penned within its limits was
agony--agony untold, superhuman, well-nigh unendurable.

He loved her--he who was bound by legal ties until death. With all the
strong concentrative might of his otherwise hard nature, he loved her.
The dead dismal failure of the past, the sombre vistas of the future,
were as nothing compared with such moments as this. Yet none suspected,
so marvellously did he hold himself in hand. Even the most jealous of
those who saw them fre