me in person like a man to woo and win
her if he could, and then he would have stood aside and bowed to her
choice. But this curt order to take her away to him as though she
were some piece of merchandise--no, if such things were possible,
better that he had never--

"Richard!"

He felt a light touch on his arm, and turned round sharply. Natasha
was standing beside him. He had been so engrossed by his dark
thoughts that he had not heard her light step on the soft sward, and
now he seemed to see her white face and great shining eyes looking up
at him in the moonlight as though there was some mist floating
between him and her. Suddenly the mist seemed to vanish. He saw tears
under the long dark lashes, and the sweet red lips parted in a faint
smile.

Lose her he might to-morrow, but for this one moment she was his and
no other man's, let those who would say nay. That instant she was
clasped helpless and unresisting in his arms, and her lips were
giving his back kiss for kiss. Wreck and chaos might come now for all
he cared. She loved him, and had given herself to him, if only for
that one moonlit hour.

After that he could plunge into the battle again, and slay and spare
not--yes, and he would slay without mercy. He would hurl his
lightnings from the skies, and where they struck there should be
death. If not love and life, then hate and death--it was not his
choice. Let those who had chosen see to that; but for the present
love and life were his, why should he not live? Then the mad, sweet
delirium passed, and saner thoughts came. He released her suddenly,
almost brusquely, and said with a harsh ring in his voice--

"Why did you come? Have you forgotten what so nearly happened the day
before yesterday?"

"No, I have not forgotten it. I have remembered it, and that is why I
came to tell you--what you know now."

Her face was rosy enough now, and she looked him straight in the eyes
as she spoke, proud to confess the mastery that he had won.

"Now listen," she went on, speaking in a low, quick, passionate tone.
"The will of the Master must be done. There is no appeal from that,
either for you or me. He can dispose of me as he chooses, and I shall
obey, as I warned you I should when you first told me that you would
win me if you could.

"Well, you have won me, so far as I can be won. I love you, and I
have come to tell you so before the shadow falls between us. And I
have come to tell you that what you have won s