th, and the rise and fall of her breast
and shoulders because of his caress.

Although they could not see each other in the gloom, she knew his lips
sought hers. By an indefinable instinct she turned from him twice before
their lips met in a long kiss of passion and content. They kissed each
other again before he drew her down beside him on the garden bench in
the flower-scented dusk.

"You care?" she asked, in a whisper, her breath on his cheek.

"More than I thought I could care for anything in life," he answered.

* * * * *

It was after ten when Nora's shrill voice recalled them to themselves.

Standing together, she asked, as she bade him good-night:
"You--are--going--away?"

For answer he clasped her slim white hands behind his throat and drew
her toward him.

"What do you think?" he said, his lips kissing hers in the speaking of
the words.

"I hope you will not go."

"I shall not." And then: "Oh, for a few days, perhaps, to take mother to
Bar Harbor; but I shall come back. And we'll have the whole long summer
together, you and I; you and I," he repeated. "Good-night. Kiss me,
Katrine!"

"Good-night," she said, raising her lips to his; and then, almost as
though it were a benediction, she added: "God keep you always just as
you are, beloved." And as he had done many times before, Francis Ravenel
felt powerless before this girl who gave all, asking nothing in return.

IX

THE TRUTH

Frank did not leave Ravenel even for the few days which he had mentioned
to Katrine as a possibility. Accompanied only by her maid, Mrs. Ravenel
started to Bar Harbor without him. June drifted into July, and still he
lingered at the plantation.

And all the summer days were spent with Katrine Dulany. At first he
believed that he would probably tire of the whole affair quickly. He was
surprised to find that he did not. He found her always new. There was an
elusive quality to her, days when she would barely permit him to touch
her hand, when she dazzled him by the audacity of her thinking; her
indifference to him, to him who was in no way accustomed to indifference
in women. And a few hours later, perchance, he would return to find a
girl with wistful eyes and speech of tenderness, with no thought "that
is not for the king," she told him once.

No word of marriage was spoken between them; if Katrine thought such an
event possible, she gave no sign, spoke no word concerning it. If