dvancing along the roadway in front. A flush of vexation spread over
her face. It might be somebody she knew--and who would insist upon
accompanying her back on the score of the disturbed state of the
country, if not upon that of politeness. She had not stolen away, to
rejoice like a schoolgirl in her sense of freedom, for that. It was
very annoying.

The horseman topped the rise. She gave a little cry, and stood rooted
to the ground as though her limbs were turned to stone. Could it be--?
Yes--it was!

In a moment he had sprung to the ground beside her. She could not move
now if she had desired to, for she was held fast in a strong embrace. A
rain of warm kisses was falling upon her lips--her face.

"Eanswyth--my darling--my love! Did you come to meet me?"

"O Eustace! I had begun to think you were never coming back to me! Ah,
you little know what I have gone through. Dear one, I never knew till
now how my very life was wrapped up in you!" she gasped, her voice
thrilling with a very volcano of tenderness and passion as she clung to
him, returning his kisses again and again, as if she could never let him
go.

She did not look unhappy and worn now. Her eyes shone with the light of
love--the beautiful lips wreathed into smiles--her whole face was
transfigured with her great happiness.

"Dear love, you have grown more beautiful than ever; and all for me," he
murmured in that peculiar tone of his which bound her to him with a
magnetic force that was almost intoxicating. "It is all for me--isn't
it?"

"Yes," she answered without hesitation; looking him straightly,
fearlessly in the eyes. Heaven help her!

"And yet you doubted me!"

"Eustace, darling, why did you never write to me? At least, why did you
only write in that ordinary, formal and matter-of-fact way?"

"Because it would have been the height of insanity, under existing
circumstances, to have done otherwise. And so you doubted me? You
thought that I had only been playing with you? Or that even otherwise I
had only to be away from you two or three weeks and I could forget?"

His tone, low and quiet, was just tinged with reproach. But it
contained a subtle consciousness of power. And to her ears it sounded
inexpressibly sweet, for it was this very sense of power that
constituted the magnetism which drew her to him.

"Yes, I will confess. I did think that," she answered. "I can hide
nothing from you. You have read my thoughts exac