ntimacy as she had ever come.

He saw her horse refuse, straightening his knees and sliding in the
marshy ground. He watched Sylvia, with an ease and grace nearly
unbelievable, somersault across the hedge and out of sight in the meadow
beyond.

"Miss Sylvia! Are you hurt?"

No answer. He sprang from his horse, leaving it free to graze with hers.
He stormed through the hedge, his heart choking him. She lay on her
side, quite motionless, the high colour fled from her cheeks, her hair
half down. Although the soft ground should have reassured him he was
obsessed by the thought that she might never get up again.

In the warmth of his fear barriers were consumed. Within his horizon
survived just two people, himself and this silent object of an extended,
if unconscious, adoration.

He shrank from learning the truth, yet it was impossible to hesitate. He
had to do what he could.

He approached on tip-toe, knelt, and lifted her until she rested against
him. The contact was galvanic. He became aware of his trembling hands.
Some man, it occurred to him, would touch those curved, slightly parted
lips. Not if he knew it, unless it were himself! He wanted to hear those
lips speak to him as if he were a human being, and not just--Morton. How
could he dream of such things now? He fumbled for her pulse, failed at
first to find it, and became panic-stricken. He shook her, more than
ever alone, facing an irretrievable loss.

"Open your eyes," he begged wildly. "What's the matter with you? Oh, my
God, Miss Sylvia, I can't ever get along without you now."

He glanced haggardly around for water, any means to snatch her back;
then she stirred in his arms, and with his relief came a sickening
return to a peopled and ordered world. He understood he had sprung
headlong with his eyes shut; that his anxiety had dictated phrases he
had had no business to form, that he would not have uttered if she had
been able to hear. Or, good Lord! Had she heard? For she drew herself
convulsively away, the colour rushing back, her eyes opening, and they
held a sort of horror.

"Are you hurt?" he said, trying to read her eyes.

She got to her knees, swaying a trifle.

"I remember. A bit of a fall. Stunned me. That's all. But you said
something, Morton! Will you please repeat that?"

Her eyes, and her voice, which had a new, frightening quality, stung his
quick temper. What he had suffered a moment ago was a little sacred. He
couldn't afford to let