olerable to her.

Prince Ember, seeing her silent, guessed nothing of her thoughts. To him
she was most dear and beautiful, the only one whom he could ever wish to
win.

They had reached the foot of her garden, and the Prince stood still. The
Shadow Witch paused also, and waited in silence.

Prince Ember took her hand and kissed it. "Lady of the Shadows," he
said, "we have come at last to your domain in safety."

The Shadow Witch caught her breath painfully, for she felt that the
moment of farewell had come. It was as if she could not bear it.

The Prince drew yet nearer. "Dear Shadow Witch," he whispered, "I
cannot leave you, so do I love you, yet I cannot stay with you here in
this grey land. Go with me, then, to my own bright country. Go with me,
there to be my bride and princess."

No answering words rose to the lips of the Shadow Witch. Her face was
turned away, and her eyes hidden. But a moment since she had been silent
because of overmastering sadness. Now, for very joy, she was dumb. In
her humility she dared not grasp at once at the happiness held out to
her.

The Prince leaned to her in fear, lest he should have been mistaken,
lest perhaps she did not love him as he had hoped and believed. "Speak,"
he besought her. "Ah, speak, my dearest. How can I go without you? How
can I leave you in this land--a land too sad and grey for such a one as
you? All the brightness of my own country is without meaning for me
henceforth, if I have not you to share it with me as my heart's true
love."

Wooed thus, the Shadow Witch hesitated no longer. She turned to him in a
flood of love and longing. She stretched her hands to him, trembling
with the fulness of her joy, and her voice came again. "Prince of my
heart," she murmured softly. "Most dear and glorious Prince, where could
my home be ever, if not with you?"

Prince Ember caught her to his heart, and silence fell once more between
them.

For a little while they tarried in the borders of the garden, clinging
to each other in their first great joy, and the dim alleys and dusky
trees took on a brightness till now unknown to them from these two
figures radiant with a pure and innocent love.

At last the Shadow Witch remembered all that she must leave behind.
"Listen," she said, and her voice was very gentle, "I have been long
gone, and my servants still wait for their mistress. They love me and
are faithful. They will mourn for me when I have left them--Creeping
S