her heart. Her lovely face was flushed, her breath
was coming and going in sobbing gasps, her eyes, dark with emotion,
were feverishly bright, and her whole body seemed afire.

"Let me go now, please," she added gaspingly. "I can bear no more.
I--I think I am going to faint."

She swayed as she spoke, and Don Carlos was on his feet in an instant,
and had thrown his arm around her lest she should collapse.

"Lie down again for a few minutes, beloved, until you recover," he said
quickly.

He settled Myra back again among the cushions on the couch, and
insisted upon her drinking a glass of aguardiente, which made her feel
more feverish than ever but revived her and dispelled the faintness.

"Did I kiss you too hungrily, darling, and feast myself too long on
your sweet lips without pausing for breath?" asked Don Carlos, after a
pause, when he saw that Myra was recovering. He, too, was flushed and
rather breathless, and his long, sinewy hands were trembling slightly.
"Myra, beloved, have my kisses fired your heart?"

"You have hurt me," equivocated Myra, avoiding his glowing eyes. "I
feel faint and exhausted. Oh, surely I have suffered enough to-night!
My strength is spent. Oh, surely you won't be so cruel as to take
further advantage of my helplessness?"

Don Carlos sighed heavily, and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I did not mean to hurt you, and had forgotten that you must be weary,"
he said, after a moment of hesitation. "I will put you to bed,
beloved, and to-morrow you will tell me that you love me."

He bent down and picked Myra up as if she were a baby, cradling her in
his arms and smiling down into her startled blue eyes.

"Always, since our first meeting, I have longed to hold you in my arms
like this and to feel that you were wholly and completely mine," he
murmured, as he caressed Myra's cheek with his lips. "You are very
beautiful, my sweet love. The sweetness and loveliness of you
entrances and enraptures my heart. I shall spend my life admiring and
adoring and worshipping, exploring and delighting in the loveliness of
you, my heart's delight. Do you not feel, Myra mia, that here in your
lover's arms and on my breast you have found the home of your heart?"

Yet again Myra felt he was sapping her powers of resistance, casting a
spell over her, and she lay passive in his strong arms, breathing
gaspingly.

"Let me go," she pleaded brokenly. "Please let me go!"

"As you wish," said