ove possible under
the circumstances, for they were in plain view of all the other couples.

She trembled with exquisite delight, sweet Dainty, and could not reply
for a moment.

"Answer, darling," he pleaded. "Will you be mine? If you are too shy to
speak, look at me with those tender blue eyes, and I will read my fate."

Slowly, bashfully, the long fringe of her lashes fluttered upward, and
the glorious blue met the passionate dark ones in a long, lingering look
that needed no words to tell of the love that thrilled either heart with
deathless emotion; and he was content. He had won the prize.

CHAPTER VII.

"THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT."

"Your roses are fading in the hot sunshine, dear. Let us get some fresh
ones," said Love to Dainty, anxious to draw her out of sight of the
others, that he might seal their betrothal with a lover's kiss.

They moved away toward the rose-garden, followed by the angry, envious
glances of Olive and Ela, who hated Dainty with jealous hate, now that
they saw how little all their arts had availed to change her lover.

But Love and Dainty had forgotten their existence. They were in Arcady.

--"Love must kiss that mortal's eyes
Who hopes to see fair Arcady,
No gold can buy your entrance there,
But beggared Love may go all bare--
No wisdom won with weariness;
But Love goes in with Folly's dress--
No fame that wit could ever win,
But only Love may lead Love in;
To Arcady, to Arcady."

All around them the flowers bloomed in lavish profusion; the tender-eyed
pansies, the golden-hearted lilies, the fragrant roses, shaking out
perfume on the warm summer air, while the bees and the butterflies
hurried from flower to flower, and overhead the blue sky of June smiled
on the happy lovers--so happy, dreaming not of the darkened future.

Where some luxuriant shrubbery formed a convenient screen, Love drew
Dainty aside, crying, ardently:

"I am dying to kiss you, my own little darling! May I?"

Without waiting for consent, he clasped her in his arms, and kissed her
lips again and again, with the ardor of the honey-bee rifling the
flowers of their sweets, till she struggled bashfully from him, crying:

"But the roses!"

"Come, then, we will get them;" and they sauntered on along the graveled
path in a sort of silent ecstacy, until suddenly Dainty recoiled with a
horrified cry:

"Oh, see that hideous viper!"

Love looked down and saw a larg