tent gaze.

"What is the real reason?" she murmured, at last.

"Can't you guess?" he demanded hoarsely.

"No," she replied, outwardly calm, but with misgivings within.

"Because I love you!" he cried passionately.

He sprang eagerly forward, as if about to take her in his arms. Grace,
startled, fell back.

"You love me?" she repeated mechanically.

"Yes, I love you--I love you!" he repeated wildly. "Haven't you seen it,
haven't you felt it all along?"

The color fled from her cheeks. Her lips trembled. The crucial moment
which she had dreaded had arrived at last.

"If you love me," she said, with a forced smile, "you have a curious way
of showing it. You know that all my hopes centered on that signal-fire,
and yet wilfully, deliberately, you destroyed it. If you love me, why
did you do that?"

"Because," he said in a hoarse whisper, "I was afraid that some ship
might see the blaze and come and take you away. I love you so much that
I'd stop at nothing. You are the first woman I've ever loved. You don't
know what that means to me. When a man of my age loves for the first
time, the force of his passion frightens him. These last two days and
nights I have purposely avoided you. I have tried to control and master
myself. I have tried to forget you, to banish you from my thoughts. All
last night I tramped through the woods, trying to persuade myself that
it was an impossible dream, that such happiness could never befall such
a poor devil as I. But I could not--I could not. In each tree I saw your
dear face, in every sigh of the wind I heard the plaintive sounds of
your sweet voice. Then, suddenly, I caught sight of the blaze on that
hill. Instantly I felt it was my enemy. I knew that if a ship came I
would lose you. I realized that it would mean the end of my happiness.
Maddened by the thought, I was seized by a sudden fury. I ran all the
way up to the top of the hill and trampled it out. Can't you understand
that I don't want to lose you, that I don't want you to go?"

Grace listened, her face flushed. When he ceased speaking, she said
gently:

"Any woman would feel pleased and honored at what you say. You have been
very kind to me. I shall never forget what I owe you. I am deeply
grateful. I shall always remember you." Hesitatingly she added: "It may
be that you are right--that a ship will never come--what then? What do
you want me to do?"

"To--to be my wife!" he replied quickly and eagerly.

Grace gaspe