to my lips.

"Yes, Desiree. We are not children. I think we know what we mean.
But you have not told me. Did you mean what you said that day on the
mountain?"

"Ah, I thought that was a play!" she murmured.

"Tell me! Did you mean it?"

"I never confess the same sin twice, my friend."

"Desiree, did you mean it?"

Then suddenly, with the rapidity of lightning, her manner changed. She
bent toward me with parted lips and looked straight into my eyes.
There was passion in the gaze; but when she spoke her voice was quite
even and so low I scarcely heard.

"Paul," she said, "I shall not again say I love you. Such words should
not be wasted. Not now, perhaps; but that is because we are where we
are. And if we should return?

"You have said that nothing is worth a serious word to you; and you are
right. You are too cynical; things are bitter in your mouth, and
doubly so when they leave it. Just now you are amusing yourself by
pretending to care for me. Perhaps you do not know it, but you are.
Search your heart, my friend, and tell me--do you want my love?"

Well, there was no need to search my heart, she had laid it open. I
hated myself then; and I turned away, unable to meet her eyes, as I
said:

"Bon Dieu!" she cried. "That is an ugly speech, monsieur!" And she
laughed aloud.

"But we must not awaken Harry," she continued with sudden softness.
"What a boy he is--and what a man! Ah, he knows what it is to love!"

That topic suited me little better, but I followed her. We talked of
Harry, Le Mire with an amount of enthusiasm that surprised me.
Suddenly she stopped abruptly and announced that she was hungry.

I found Harry's pantry after a few minutes' search and took some of its
contents to Desiree. Then I returned to the edge of the water and ate
my portion alone. That meal was one scarcely calculated for the
pleasures of companionship or conviviality.

It was several hours after that before Harry awoke, the greater part of
which Desiree and I were silent.

I would have given something to have known her thoughts; my own were
not very pleasant. It is always a disagreeable thing to discover that
some one else knows you better than you know yourself. And Desiree had
cut deep. At the time I thought her unjust; time alone could have told
which of us was right. If she were here with me now--but she is not.

Finally Harry awoke. He was delighted to find Desiree awake and
comparatively well