at you must _not_ see me, do you still persist?"

"As you wish," answered Roddy quietly, but his tone showed that his
purpose to see her was unchanged. Inez heard him laugh happily. He
moved suddenly toward her. "Why do I persist?" he asked. His voice,
sunken to a whisper, was eager, mocking. In it she discerned a new
note. It vibrated with feeling. "Why do I persist?" he whispered.
"Because you are the most wonderful person I have ever met. Because if
I did not persist I'd despise myself. Since I last saw you I have
thought of nothing but _you_, I have been miserable for the sight of
_you_. You can forbid me seeing you, but you can't take away from me
what you have given me--the things you never knew you gave me."

The girl interrupted him sharply.

"Mr. Forrester!" she cried.

Roddy went on, as though she had not spoken.

"I had to tell you," he exclaimed. "Until I told you I couldn't sleep.
It has been in my head, in my heart, every moment since I saw you. You
_had_ to know. And this night!" he exclaimed. As though calling upon
them to justify him he flung out his arms toward the magic moonlight,
the flashing waves, the great fronds of the palms rising above the
wall of the garden. "You have given me," he cried, "the most beautiful
thing that has come into my life, and on a night like this I _had_ to
speak. I had to thank you. On such a night as this," Roddy cried
breathlessly, "Jessica stole from Shylock's house to meet her lover.
On such a night as this Leander swam the Hellespont. And on this night
I had to tell you that to me you are the most wonderful and beautiful
woman in the world."

How Inez Rojas, bewildered, indignant, silent only through
astonishment, would have met this attack, Roddy never knew, for Pedro,
leaping suddenly from the shore, gave her no time to answer.
Trembling with excitement, the Venezuelan spoke rapidly.

"You must go!" he commanded. He seized Roddy by the arm and tried to
drag him toward the garden. "The police! They surround the house."

With his free hand he pointed at two figures, each carrying a lantern,
who approached rapidly along the shore from either direction.

"They are spying upon all who enter. If they find _you_!" In an agony
of alarm the old man tossed up his hands.

Under his breath Roddy cursed himself impotently for a fool. He saw
that again he would compromise the girl he had just told he held in
high regard, that he would put in jeopardy the cause for whic