er. "I will run upstairs and unlock the treasure chest. I do not
trust even my maid. You shall have two to-night--no more."

"You've really saved them for me?" he queried, a note of eagerness in
his voice. "All these days?"

"I have been your miser," she said lightly, and then ran lightly up the
stairs.

He looked after her until she disappeared at the top with a quick, shy
glance over her shoulder. Then he permitted his spirits to drop suddenly
from the altitude to which he had driven them. An expression of utter
dejection came into his face; a haggard look replaced the buoyant smile.

"God, how I love her--how I love her!" he groaned, half aloud.

She was coming down the stairs now, eager, flushed, more abashed than
she would have had him know. Without a word she placed the two
cigarettes in his outstretched palm. Her eyes were shining.

In silence he clasped her hand and led her unresisting through the
window and out upon the broad gallery. She was returning the fervid
pressure of his fingers, warm and electric. They crossed slowly to the
rail. Two chairs stood close together. They sat down, side by side. The
power of speech seemed to have left them altogether.

He laid the two cigarettes on the broad stone rail. She followed the
movement with perturbed eyes, and then leaned forward and placed her
elbows on the rail. With her chin in her hands, she looked out over the
sombre park, her heart beating violently. After a long time she heard
him saying hoarsely:

"If the ship should come to-morrow, you would go out of my life? You
would go away and leave me here--"

"No, no!" she cried, turning upon him suddenly. "You _could_ not stay
here. You shall not!"

"But, dearest love, I am bound to stay--I cannot go And, God help me, I
want to stay. If I could go into your world and take you unto myself
forever--if you will tell me now that some day you may forget your world
and come to live in mine--then, ah, then, it would be different! But
without you I have no choice of abiding place. Here, as well as
anywhere."

She put her hands over her eyes.

"I cannot bear the thought of--of leaving you behind--of leaving you
here to die at the hands of those beasts down there. Hollingsworth, I
implore you--come! If the opportunity comes--and it will, I know--you
will leave the island with the rest of us?"

"Not unless I am commanded to do so by the man who sent me here to serve
these beasts, as you call them."

"They d