vanes of the garden-house. The flowers burned
with that ember-like glow which may be seen on summer evenings, and
poured out their scent; the air was sweet and cool, and white moths were
beginning to poise and stir among the blossoms. The two actors on this
scene too were not unworthy of it; his dark velvet and lace with the
glimmer of diamonds here and there, and his delicate bearded clean-cut
face, a little tanned, thrown into relief by the spotless crisp ruff
beneath, and above all his air of strength and refinement and
self-possession--all combined to make him a formidable stormer of a
girl's heart. And as he looked on her--on her clear almost luminous face
and great eyes, shrined in the drooping lace shawl, through which a jewel
or two in her black hair glimmered, her upright slender figure in its
dark sheath, and the hand, white and cool, that held her shawl together
over her breast--he had a pang of hope and despair at once, at the sudden
sense of need of this splendid creature of God to be one with him, and
reign with him over these fair possessions; and of hopelessness at the
thought that anything so perfect could be accomplished in this imperfect
world.

He turned immediately and walked beside her, and they both knew, in the
silence that followed, that the crisis had come.

"Mistress Isabel," he said, still looking down as he spoke, and his voice
sounded odd to her ears, "I wonder if you know what I would say to you."

There came no sound from her, but the rustle of her dress.

"But I must say it," he went on, "follow what may. It is this. I love you
dearly."

Her walk faltered beside him, and it seemed as if she would stand still.

"A moment," he said, and he lifted his white restrained face. "I ask you
to be patient with me. Perhaps I need not say that I have never said this
to any woman before; but more, I have never even thought it. I do not
know how to speak, nor what I should say; beyond this, that since I first
met you at the door across there, a year ago, you have taught me ever
since what love means; and now I am come to you, as to my dear mistress,
with my lesson learnt."

They were standing together now; he was still turned a little away from
her, and dared not lift his eyes to her face again. Then of a sudden he
felt her hand on his arm for a moment, and he looked up, and saw her eyes
all swimming with sorrow.

"Dear friend," she said quite simply, "it is impossible--Ah! what can I
say?"