ce lighted up at the sight of him.

"How sweet of you to toil out here this hot afternoon," she said, as he
took within his the two hands she had instinctively held out to him. For
a moment he looked at her without replying, contrasting the grim motive
which had brought him hither with this perfect embodiment of youth, and
health, and beauty, with all of life, all of the future yet before
her--all of life with its possibilities. She was in radiant spirits, and
the hazel eyes shone entrancingly, and the slight flush under the dark
warmth of the satin skin, caused by the unaffected pleasure inspired by
his arrival, rendered even his strong head a trifle unsteady, as though
with a rich, sweet, overpowering intoxication.

"Well, the reward is great," he answered, still retaining her hands in a
lingering pressure. "Are you all alone, child?"

"Yes," she said, that pleased flush mantling again, the diminutive
sounding strangely sweet to her ears as coming from him.

"But you--we may not be much longer. People might drop in at any moment,
and I want to be alone with you this afternoon. I am spoiling for one of
our long talks, so put on a hat and come for a stroll across the veldt.
Or is it too hot?"

"You know it is not," she answered. "Now, I won't be a minute."

She was as good as her word, for she reappeared almost immediately with
a hat and sunshade, and they set forth, striking out over the bare open
veldt which extended around and behind the Booyseus estate. The heat was
great, greater than most women would have cared to face, but the blue
cloudlessness of the sky, the sheeny glow of the sun upon the free open
country was so much delight to Lilith Ormskirk. In her love for all that
was bright and glowing she was a true daughter of the South.

"Oh, Laurence, how good it is to live!" she exclaimed, as they stepped
out at a brisk pace in the glorious openness of the warm air. "Do you
know, I feel at times so bright, and well, and happy in the very joy and
thankfulness of being alive, that it almost brings tears. Do you
understand the feeling? Tell me."

"I think so."

"But did you ever feel that way yourself?"

"Perhaps--in fact, I must have, because I understand so thoroughly what
you mean; but it must have been a very, very long time ago."

His tone was that of one gravely amused, indulgently caressing. Heavens!
he was thinking. The contrast here was quite delicious; in fact, it was
unique. If only Lilith coul