ur cap, and mighty gauntlets,
and hampers and sacks full of toys and good things and true northern
jollity; where all is young and fresh and free; where eyes are bright
and cheeks are red, and hands are strong and hearts are brave; where
children laugh and tumble in the diamond dust of the dry, driven snow;
where men and women know what happiness can mean; where the old are as
the giant pines, green, silver-crowned landmarks in the human forest,
rather than as dried, twisted, sapless trees fit only to be cut down and
burned, in that dear north to which our hearts and memories still turn
for refreshment, under the Indian suns, and out of the hot splendour of
calm southern seas. The winter of the black city that spans the frozen
Moldau is the winter of the grave, dim as a perpetual afternoon in a
land where no lotus ever grew, cold with the unspeakable frigidness of a
reeking air that thickens as oil but will not be frozen, melancholy as a
stony island of death in a lifeless sea.

A month had gone by, and in that time the love that had so suddenly
taken root in Unorna's heart had grown to great proportions as love will
when, being strong and real, it is thwarted and repulsed at every turn.
For she was not loved. She had destroyed the idol and rooted out the
memory of it, but she could not take its place. She had spoken the truth
when she had told Keyork that she would be loved for herself, or not at
all, and that she would use neither her secret arts nor her rare gifts
to manufacture a semblance when she longed for a reality.

Almost daily she saw him. As in a dream he came to her and sat by her
side, hour after hour, talking of many things, calm, apparently, and
satisfied in her society, but strangely apathetic and indifferent.
Never once in those many days had she seen his pale face light up with
pleasure, nor his deep eyes show a gleam of interest; never had the tone
of his voice been disturbed in its even monotony; never had the touch of
his hand, when they met and parted, felt the communication of the thrill
that ran through hers.

It was very bitter, for Unorna was proud with the scarcely reasoning
pride of a lawless, highly gifted nature, accustomed to be obeyed and
little used to bending under any influence. She brought all the skill
she could command to her assistance; she talked to him, she told him of
herself, she sought his confidence, she consulted him on every matter,
she attempted to fascinate his imagina