weeps away the frail barricade of
timber and stones which thought to dam its course--broken down before
the passionate outburst of a strong nature awakened to the knowledge of
itself--startled into life by the magic touch, by the full force and
fury of a consciousness of real love.

"You are right," she said at last. "We must go away from here. I
cannot bear that you should be exposed to such frightful peril. O
Eustace! Why did we ever meet!"

Why, indeed! he thought. And the fierce, wild thrill of exultation
which fan through him at the consciousness that her love was his--that
for good or for ill she belonged to him--belonged to him absolutely--was
dashed by the thought: How was it going to end? His clear-sighted,
disciplined nature could not altogether get rid of that consideration.
But clear-sighted, disciplined as it was, he could not forego that which
constituted the whole joy and sweetness of living. "Sufficient for the
day" must be his motto. Let the morrow take care of itself.

"Why did we ever meet?" he echoed. "Ah, does not that precisely
exemplify what I was saying just now? Life is full of surprises.
Surprise Number 1, when I first found _you_ here at all. Number 2, when
I awoke to the fact that you were stealing away my very self. And I
soon did awake to that consciousness."

"You did?"

"I did. And I have been battling hard against it--against myself--
against you--and your insidiously enthralling influence ever since."

His tone had become indescribably sweet and winning. If the power of
the man invariably made itself felt by all with whom he was brought into
contact in the affairs of everyday life, how much more was it manifested
now as he poured the revelation of his long pent-up love--the love of a
strong, self-contained nature which had broken bounds at last--into the
ears of this woman whom he had subjugated--yes, subjugated, utterly,
completely.

And what of her?

It was as though all heaven had opened before her eyes. She stood there
tightly clasped in that embrace, drinking in the entrancing tenderness
of those tones--hungrily devouring the straight glance of those magnetic
eyes, glowing into hers. She had yielded--utterly, completely, for she
was not one to do things by halves. Ah, the rapture of it!

But every medal has its obverse side. Like the stab of a sword it came
home to Eanswyth. This wonderful, enthralling, beautiful love which had
thrown a mystic glamour