look; yet since I have
known you I have been more madly happy in just knowing that you live
than I would have been had any other woman in all the world thrown
herself into my arms and said she loved me above all other men. I am
not fit to tell you this. But to-night I go to try myself, either
never to see you again, or to come back perhaps more worthy to love
you. Think of this when I am gone. Do not speak to me now. I may
have made you hate me for speaking so, or I may have made you pity me;
so let me go not knowing, just loving you, worshipping you, and holding
you apart and above all other people. I go to fight for you, do you
understand? Not for our Church, not for my people, but for you, to
live or die for you. And I ask nothing from you but that you will let
me love you always."

The Prince bent, and catching up Miss Carson's riding-gloves that lay
beside her on the bench, kissed them again and again, and then, rising
quickly, walked out of the arbor into the white sunshine, and, without
turning, mounted his pony and galloped across the burning desert in the
direction of Tangier.

Archie Gordon had not been invited to join the excursion into the
country, nor would he have accepted it, for he wished to be by himself
that he might review the situation and consider what lay before him.
He sat with his long legs dangling over the broad rampart which
overlooks the harbor of Tangier. He was whistling meditatively to
himself and beating an accompaniment to the tune with his heels. At
intervals he ceased whistling while he placed a cigar between his teeth
and pulled upon it thoughtfully, resuming his tune again at the point
where it had been interrupted. Below him the waves ran up lazily on
the level beach and sank again, dragging the long sea-weed with them,
as they swept against the sharp rocks, and exposed them for an instant,
naked and glistening in the sun. On either side of him the town
stretched to meet the low, white, sand-hills in a crescent of low,
white houses pierced by green minarets and royal palms. A warm sun had
sent the world to sleep at mid-day, and an enforced peace hung over the
glaring white town and the sparkling blue sea. Gordon blinked at the
glare, but his eyes showed no signs of drowsiness. They were, on the
contrary, awake to all that passed on the high road behind him, and on
the sandy beach at his feet, while at the same time his mind was busily
occupied in reviewing what had