k
to me the feeling that had swept across me as a boy, when first outlined
against the dusty books and papers of my father's office she had flashed
upon my eyes: that all the fairy tales had suddenly come true, only
now, instead of the Princess, she was the Queen. Taller she was, with
a dignity that formerly had been the only charm she lacked. She did not
hear my coming, my way being across the soft, short grass, and for a
little while I stood there in the shadow of the yews, drinking in the
beauty of her clear-cut profile, bent down towards her book, the curving
lines of her long neck, the wonder of the exquisite white hand against
the lilac of her dress.

I did not speak; rather would I have remained so watching; but turning
at the end of the path, she saw me, and as she came towards me held out
her hand. I knelt upon the path, and raised it to my lips. The action
was spontaneous, till afterwards I was not aware of having done it. Her
lips were smiling as I raised my eyes to them, the faintest suggestion
of contempt mingling with amusement. Yet she seemed pleased, and her
contempt, even if I were not mistaken, would not have wounded me.

"So you are still in love with me? I wondered if you would be."

"Did you know that I was in love with you?"

"I should have been blind if I had not."

"But I was only a boy."

"You were not the usual type of boy. You are not going to be the usual
type of man."

"You do not mind my loving you?"

"I cannot help it, can I? Nor can you."

She seated herself on a stone bench facing a sun-dial, and leaning hack,
her hands clasped behind her head, looked at me and laughed.

"I shall always love you," I answered, "but it is with a curious sort of
love. I do not understand it myself."

"Tell me," she commanded, still with a smile about her lips, "describe
it to me."

I was standing over against her, my arm resting upon the dial's stone
column. The sun was sinking, casting long shadows on the velvety grass,
illuminating with a golden light her upturned face.

"I would you were some great queen of olden days, and that I might be
always near you, serving you, doing your bidding. Your love in return
would spoil all; I shall never ask it, never desire it. That I might
look upon you, touch now and then at rare intervals with my lips your
hand, kiss in secret the glove you had let fall, the shoe you had flung
off, know that you knew of my love, that I was yours to do with as you
wou