e in
chafing repulse by the chaste challenge of her flaming eyes.

"'Hear me, Prince Otondo!' she cried with unmistakable candor and
disturbing incisiveness of speech:

"'I love not save where I choose.

"'Of what avail is it to subdue this frail body? What is the joy of such
a conquest? Where the pleasure in an empty casket?'

"Abashed, astounded, the prince retreated a space and looked, with
savage intentness, upon the beautiful girl, superb in her denunciation,
enchanting in the rebellious dishevel of her hair, the indignant rebuke
of her eyes.

"Some reflection of contriteness must have beamed its acknowledgment of
the justice of her virtuous outburst in the glance which held her in its
ardent fascination, for Lal Lu resumed, in a voice sensibly modulated
and with a demeanor curiously softened:

"'Long have I known of thee, O prince!

"'Before all others have I placed thee.

"'Wonder not, then, that I resent the ignoble assumption that my regard
may be compelled.

"'My love is as royal as thine.

"'I bestow it where I will; unasked, if its object pleaseth me.

"'But I make no sign, O prince.

"'In such a stress a maiden may not speak her mind.'

"'Peace, Lal Lu!' exclaimed the prince, who, during her initial
reproaches and her subsequent explanations, had recovered his native
dignity of carriage and elevation of demeanor; 'peace! Never before have
I hearkened to such speech as thine.

"'All my life I have had but to ask, and what I craved was mine.

"'My wish has been my command.

"'Hear, then, Lal Lu: Henceforward thou art as safe with me as in thy
father's home.'

"'Aye! what of him?' interrupted the maiden; 'what of my father, O
prince?'

"'All is well with him,' replied the prince, manifestly chagrined at the
incautious introduction of this disturbing name and the filial
solicitude it awakened.

"'He has been assured of thy safety; of him will I speak later. But now,
Lal Lu----

"'I acknowledge thy rebuke. I stand before thee, thy sovereign, thy
suppliant.

"'See!' he exclaimed, 'what I cannot demand, I entreat'; and with an
indescribably fascinating tribute of surrender and yearning, this royal
suitor awaited her reply.

"Leaning for support against a slender stand near-by, to which she
communicated the trembling fervor which pulsed so warmly through every
fiber of her being, the beautiful Lal Lu looked upon the fine
countenance before her with a light in her eyes that dazzled wit