t flashed upon her: here she was baring
her childish heart--he would think it childish, she was sure he
would--everything she thought, to a man she had never known till to-day.
No, no, she was wrong; she had known him, but it was only as Philip,
the boy who had saved her life. And the Philip of her memory was only a
picture, not a being; something to think about, not something to speak
with, to whom she might show her heart. She flushed hotly and turned her
shoulder on him. Her eyes followed a lizard creeping up the stones. As
long as she lived she remembered that lizard, its colour changing in the
sun. She remembered the hot stones, and how warm the flag-staff was when
she stretched out her hand to it mechanically. But the swift, noiseless
lizard running in and out of the stones, it was ever afterwards like a
coat-of-arms upon the shield of her life.

Philip came close to her. At first he spoke over her shoulder, then he
faced her. His words forced her eyes up to his, and he held them.

"Yes, yes, we learn how to live," he said. "It's only when we travel
alone that we don't see before us. I will teach you how to live--we
will learn the way together! Guida! Guida!"--he reached out his hands
to wards her--"don't start so! Listen to me. I feel for you what I have
felt for no other being in all my life. It came upon me yesterday when
I saw you in the window at the Vier Prison. I didn't understand it. All
night I walked the deck thinking of you. To-day as soon as I saw your
face, as soon as I touched your hand, I knew what it was, and--"

He attempted to take her hand now. "Oh, no, no!" she exclaimed, and drew
back as if terrified.

"You need not fear me," he burst out. "For now I know that I have but
two things to live for: for my work"--he pointed to the Narcissus--"and
for you. You are frightened of me? Why, I want to have the right to
protect you, to drive away all fear from your life. You shall be the
garden and I shall be the wall; you the nest and I the rock; you the
breath of life and I the body that breathes it. Guida, my Guida, I love
you!"

She drew back, leaning against the stones, her eyes riveted upon his,
and she spoke scarcely above a whisper.

"It is not true--it is not true. You've known me only for one day--only
for one hour. How can you say it!" There was a tumult in her breast; her
eyes shone and glistened; wonder, embarrassed yet happy wonder, looked
at him from her face, which was touched with a