oiding his eyes, sank back upon the bench, and Roddy, seating
himself, leaned over her.

"Remember!" he whispered, "though the mills of the gods grind slow,
they grind exceeding fine. The day is coming when you will never have
to send for me again. You cannot escape it, or me. I am sorry--but I
have come into your life--to stay!"

The girl breathed quickly, and, as though casting off the spell of his
voice and the feeling it carried with it, suddenly threw out her hands
and, turning quickly, faced him.

"I must tell you what makes it so hard," she said, "why I must not
listen to you. It is this. I must not think of myself. I must not
think of you, except--" She paused, and then added, slowly and
defiantly--"as the one person who can save my father! Do you
understand? Do I make it plain? I am _making use_ of you. I have led
you on. I have kept you near me, for his sake. I am sacrificing
you--for him!" Her voice was trembling, miserable. With her clenched
fist she beat upon her knee. "I had to tell you," she murmured, "I had
to tell you! I had to remember," she protested fiercely, "that I am
nothing, that I have no life of my own. Until he is free I do not
exist. I am not a girl to love, or to listen to love. I can be only
the daughter of the dear, great soul who, without you, may die. And
all you can be to me is the man who can save him!" She raised her
eyes, unhappily, appealingly. "Even if you despised me," she
whispered, "I had to tell you."

Roddy's eyes were as miserable as her own. He reached out his arms to
her, as though he would shelter her from herself and from the whole
world.

"But, my dear one, my wonderful one," he cried, "can't you see that's
only morbid, only wicked? _You_ led _me_ on?" he cried. He laughed
jubilantly, happily. "Did I _need_ leading? Didn't I love you from the
first moment you rode toward me out of the sunrise, bringing the day
with you? How could I help but love you? You've done nothing to make
me love you; you've only been the most glorious, the most beautiful
woman----"

At a sign from the girl he stopped obediently.

"Can't I love you," he demanded, "and work for your father the more,
because I love you?"

The girl sat suddenly erect and clasped her hands. Her shoulders moved
slightly, as though with sudden cold.

"It frightens me!" she whispered. "Before you came I thought of him
always, and nothing else, only of him. I dreamed of him; terrible,
haunting dreams. Each day