of sound as made further speech impossible. He awoke to the fact
that Juliet was clinging to his arm with both hands, and in a second his
free hand was on the top of them holding them tightly.

The thunder rolled away, and a deeper darkness fell. Great drops of rain
began to splash around them.

"Quick!" gasped Juliet. "We can't--possibly--reach the house now. There
is an arbour--by the garden gate. Let's go there!"

He turned off the road on to a side-path that led to a shrubbery. The
rush and roar of the coming rain was sweeping up from the sea. Juliet
pressed forward.

Again a jagged line of light gleamed before them. Again the thunder
crashed. They found the little gate and the arbour beyond.

"Thank goodness!" gasped Juliet.

She stumbled at the step of the summer-house, and he thrust an arm
forward to catch her. He almost lifted her into shelter. The darkness
within was complete. She leaned upon him, trembling.

"You're not hurt?" he said.

"No, not hurt, only--shaken--and--and--stupid," she answered, on the
verge of tears.

His arm still held her. It closed about her, very surely, very steadily.
He did not utter a word.

The rain swept down in a torrent, as if the skies had opened. Great
hail-stones beat upon the laurels around them with tropical violence.
The noise of the downpour seemed vaster, more overwhelming, even than
the thunder.

Juliet was palpitating from head to foot. She leaned upon the supporting
arm, her eyes closed against the leaping lightning, her two hands pressed
hard upon her breast. Columbus crouched close to her, shivering.

And ever the man's arm drew her nearer, nearer, till she felt the strong
beating of his heart. The storm raged on about them, but they two stood,
as it were, alone, wrapped at its very centre in a great silence. For
minutes they neither moved nor spoke.

Slowly the turmoil abated. The downpour lessened. The storm passed. And
Juliet stirred.

"How--disgraceful of me!" she murmured. "I'm not generally so foolish as
this. But--it was so very violent."

"I know," he said. His hold slackened. He let her go. And then suddenly
he stayed her. He took her hand, and bending pressed it closely,
burningly, to his lips.

She stood motionless, suffering him. But in a moment, as he still held
her, very gently she spoke. "Mr. Green, please--don't be so terribly
in earnest! It's too soon. I warned you before. You haven't known
me--long enough."

He stood up and fa