e!--come
quite close to me!"

She obeyed, moving with the soft tread of a forest animal, and, face to
face with him, looked up. He smiled kindly into her dark fierce eyes,
and noted with artistic approval the unspoiled beauty of natural lines
in her form, and the proud poise of her handsome head on her full
throat and splendid shoulders.

"You are very good-looking, Manella"--he then remarked, lazily--"Quite
the model for a Juno. Be satisfied with yourself. You should have
scores of lovers!"

She stamped her foot suddenly and impatiently.

"I have none!" she said--"And you know it! But you do not care!"

He shook a reproachful forefinger at her.

"Manella, Manella, you are naughty! Temper, temper! Of course I do not
care! Be reasonable! Why should I?"

She pressed both hands tightly against her bosom, seeking to control
her quick, excited breathing.

"Why should you? I do not know! But _I_ care! I would be your woman! I
would be your slave! I would wait upon you and serve you faithfully! I
would obey your every wish. I am a good servant,--I can cook and sew
and wash and sweep--I can do everything in a house and you should have
no trouble. You should write and read all day,--I would not speak a
word to disturb you. I would guard you like a dog that loves his
master!"

He listened, with a strange look in his eyes,--a look of wonder and
something of compassion. There was a pause. The silence of the hills
was, or seemed more intense and impressive--the great white cloud still
spread itself in large leisure along the miles of slowly darkening sky.
Presently he spoke. "And what wages, Manella? What wages should I have
to pay for such a servant?--such a dog?"

Her head drooped, she avoided his steady, searching gaze.

"What wages, Manella? None, you would say, except--love! You tell me
you would be my woman,--and I know you mean it. You would be my
slave--you mean that, too. But you would want me to love you! Manella,
there is no such thing as love!--not in this world! There is animal
attraction,--the magnetism of the male for the female, the female for
the male,--the magnetism that pulls the opposite sexes together in
order to keep this planet supplied with an ever new crop of fools,--but
love! No, Manella! There is no such thing!"

Here he gently took her two hands away from their tightly folded
position on her bosom and held them in his own.

"No such thing, my dear!" he went on, speaking softly and soothin