t, standing lips to lips, they forget everything but
just a kiss. While her heart beat against him, and her lips quivered on
his, Ashurst felt nothing but simple rapture--Destiny meant her for his
arms, Love could not be flouted! But when their lips parted for
breath, division began again at once. Only, passion now was so much the
stronger, and he sighed:

"Oh! Megan! Why did you come?" She looked up, hurt, amazed.

"Sir, you asked me to."

"Don't call me 'sir,' my pretty sweet."

"What should I be callin' you?"

"Frank."

"I could not. Oh, no!"

"But you love me--don't you?"

"I could not help lovin' you. I want to be with you--that's all."

"All!"

So faint that he hardly heard, she whispered: "I shall die if I can't be
with you."

Ashurst took a mighty breath.

"Come and be with me, then!"

"Oh!"

Intoxicated by the awe and rapture in that "Oh!" he went on, whispering:

"We'll go to London. I'll show you the world.

"And I will take care of you, I promise, Megan. I'll never be a brute to
you!"

"If I can be with you--that is all."

He stroked her hair, and whispered on:

"To-morrow I'll go to Torquay and get some money, and get you some
clothes that won't be noticed, and then we'll steal away. And when
we get to London, soon perhaps, if you love me well enough, we'll be
married."

He could feel her hair shiver with the shake of her head.

"Oh, no! I could not. I only want to be with you!"

Drunk on his own chivalry, Ashurst went on murmuring, "It's I who am not
good enough for you. Oh! Megan, when did you begin to love me?"

"When I saw you in the road, and you looked at me. The first night I
loved you; but I never thought you would want me."

She slipped down suddenly to her knees, trying to kiss his feet.

A shiver of horror went through Ashurst; he lifted her up bodily and
held her fast--too upset to speak.

She whispered: "Why won't you let me?"

"It's I who will kiss your feet!"

Her smile brought tears into his eyes. The whiteness of her moonlit
face so close to his, the faint pink of her opened lips, had the living
unearthly beauty of the apple blossom.

And then, suddenly, her eyes widened and stared past him painfully; she
writhed out of his arms, and whispered: "Look!"

Ashurst saw nothing but the brightened stream, the furze faintly gilded,
the beech trees glistening, and behind them all the wide loom of the
moonlit hill. Behind him came her frozen whisper: "The gip