you should anyone tell it to you, for it would embitter your life."

"My life being so very sweet now," answered Madge, with a slight sneer.
"You are trying to put out a fire by pouring oil on it, and what you
say only makes me more determined to learn what it is."

"Madge, I implore you not to persist in this foolish curiosity," he
said, almost fiercely, "it will bring you only misery."

"If it concerns me I have a right to know it," she answered curtly.
"When I marry you how can we be happy together, with the shadow of a
secret between us?"

Brian rose, and leaned against the verandah post with a dark frown on
his face.

"Do you remember that verse of Browning's," he said, coolly--

'Where the apple reddens Never pry,
Lest we lose our Edens, Eve and I.'

"Singularly applicable to our present conversation, I think."

"Ah," she said, her pale face flushing with anger, "you want me to live
in a fool's paradise, which may end at any moment."

"That depends upon yourself," he answered coldly. "I never roused your
curiosity by telling you that there was a secret, but betrayed it
inadvertently to Calton's cross-questioning. I tell you candidly that I
did learn something from Rosanna Moore, and it concerns you, though
only indirectly through a third person. But it would do no good to
reveal it, and would ruin both our lives."

She did not answer, but looked straight before her into the glowing
sunshine.

Brian fell on his knees beside her, and stretched out his hands with an
entreating gesture.

"Oh, my darling," he cried sadly, "cannot you trust me? The love which
has stood such a test as yours cannot fail like this. Let me bear the
misery of knowing it alone, without blighting your young life with the
knowledge of it. I would tell you if I could, but, God help me, I
cannot--I cannot," and he buried his face in his hands.

Madge closed her mouth firmly, and touched his comely head with her
cool, white fingers. There was a struggle going on in her breast
between her feminine curiosity and her love for the man at her
feet--the latter conquered, and she bowed her head over his.

"Brian," she whispered softly, "let it be as you wish. I will never
again try to learn this secret, since you do not desire it."

He arose to his feet, and caught her in his strong arms, with a glad
smile.

"My dearest," he said, kissing her passionately, and then for a few
moments neither of them spoke. "We will begin a new li