gly along
unknown channels, thrilling and uplifting.

"'_The stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread
the path of Hel, and heaven is cloven. The sun darkens, earth in ocean
sinks, fall from heaven the bright stars, fire's breath assails the
all-nourishing tree, towering fire plays against heaven itself_.'"

Outlined against the blazing air, her brows and lashes white with frost,
the jewel-dust striking and washing against hair and face, and the
south-sun lighting her with a great redness, the man saw her as the
genius of the race. The traditions of the blood laid hold of him, and he
felt strangely at one with the white-skinned, yellow-haired giants of the
younger world. And as he looked upon her the mighty past rose before
him, and the caverns of his being resounded with the shock and tumult of
forgotten battles. With bellowing of storm-winds and crash of smoking
North Sea waves, he saw the sharp-beaked fighting galleys, and the
sea-flung Northmen, great-muscled, deep-chested, sprung from the
elements, men of sword and sweep, marauders and scourgers of the warm
south-lands! The din of twenty centuries of battle was roaring in his
ear, and the clamor for return to type strong upon him. He seized her
hands passionately.

"Be the bright bride by me, Frona! Be the bright bride by me on the
couch!"

She started and looked down at him, questioningly. Then the import of it
reached her and she involuntarily drew back. The sun shot a last failing
flicker across the earth and vanished. The fire went out of the air, and
the day darkened. Far above, the hearse-dogs howled mournfully.

"No," he interrupted, as words formed on her lips. "Do not speak. I
know my answer, your answer . . . now . . . I was a fool . . . Come,
let us go down."

It was not until they had left the mountain behind them, crossed the
flat, and come out on the river by the saw-mill, that the bustle and
skurry of human life made it seem possible for them to speak. Corliss
had walked with his eyes moodily bent to the ground; and Frona, with head
erect and looking everywhere, stealing an occasional glance to his face.
Where the road rose over the log run-way of the mill the footing was
slippery, and catching at her to save her from falling, their eyes met.

"I--I am grieved," she hesitated. And then, in unconscious self-defence,
"It was so . . . I had not expected it--just then."

"Else you would have prevented?"