Beyond The Rocks

istened to the diminishing noise of the widow's Mercédès. "We a

. I want you to arrange for whatever you think would give me the greatest pl

she had ever made, and she was

an through him. "Has not your father, has not your hostess, given you into my charge?

ed too-a sensation as of an electric shock almost quiver

the automobile and drove under the co

with the tenderest solicitude, but when they were settled and started-it was a coupé

to walk leisurely through the rooms. I am not going to worry you with much sight-seeing and tourists and lessons of history, but I want you to glance at this setting of the life picture of poor Marie Antoinette, becau

dora; "you have gue

almost arrived,"

when they alighted at the gates she found the guardian was an old friend of Lord Braconda

rianon, and can surmise how its

n they came to the large salon; "and she sat here and played on her harpsichord-an

It was a subject that she must have nothing to do with. It could never come her way, now

as once before when she had spoken of Jean d'Agrève, and ag

r talk about the weather. The sub

lways shall believe Fersen was her lover; n

odora, very low, and she

to control his voice to sound dispassionate and discursive-he knew he must not frighten her. "Love

lmost whispe

gallant and thoughtful for her slightest good, and, from what one hears and has read, he must have understood her,

g, long breath, but

of those moments may have been her glory

e so!" sai

ged bedroom. Oh, she must get out into the air-or she must tal

f love of this poor dead queen had such power to move her. And perhaps F

ry pale as she said: "It saddens me

lence, and on through the little door in the co

now she was happy before any troubles cam

own the path tow

went quite white. Her soul is no longer the open book I have fo

at those greens, so tender and young, and that peep of the sky! Oh, and those dear, pretty lit

he said; "and I want

eet and joyous as s

ailiff's son who lives opposite, and you have come with your corn to be ground. Oh, and I shall make a bargain, and

ake that I would not agre

to-that you will not like," she said, "and then I sh

ll make any bargain with you, so long as

, you hedge!" she laug

he was gay and whimsical, and to herself she was saying

take you into a forest like the babes in the woods, and we shall go and lose ourselves and forget the world altogether.

she

they turned into the Forest of Marly. "And you ha

o me," said Hector. It gave him ridiculous pleasure to anno

tle. She would like to have continu

up it about a mile the automobile stopped, and they

down to the centre of a star where five avenues meet? It is all soft grass and splendid trees, and m

nt to spend some hours in peace you

rm. I am going to take you right to the middle of the star until you see five paths for you to choose from, all green and fu

Then she was silent until

the noise of a bird. Only the green, green trees, and here and there

ts and dreamers-and l

is way and that! Five pat

tay in the centre, in this one round place, whe

ibilities are more agreeable per

eculate," s

d he placed the rug up against a giant tree between two avenues

n another road that leads in a roundabout way to the Grande Ave

aid Theodora, and she leaned back aga

n off beside him, and in a desert island they

, of the windows she had opened wide to the sunlight. To tell her that he loved her, that he longed to touch even the tips of her fingers, that the thought of caressing her lips

bled and moved and yet wildly happy. She looked away down the centre avenue, and she began to speak fast with a little catch in her

avenues," she said; "tell me a f

with her mood

here Was a Fairy Pr

ve and enjoy the green wood and find what they could of sport and joy. But Cupid laughed. 'As if,' he said, 'there is anything in a green wood of good without me-and my shafts!' So while the watch-dog slept-it was a warm, warm day in May, just such as this-h

asked Theodora, and again ther

d, "but this was not enough for the pri

cruel of him,"

only a man, you know, although he was i

ppened?" ask

these allées, which lead into the future, there is only one thing, and that is Love; he bars their gates. As soon as you

n an allée," said Theodora-and she smiled radia

to me would not say what happened to them, only that the prince was wounded, deep

lly men of his world. She understood this story had himself and herself for hero and heroine; she felt she must continue the badinage-anything to keep the tone as light as it could be, with all these new emotions flooding her

ry for the prince-b

suffers," said Theodora, gen

Bracondale came to him-his mother would grow to love her perhaps even more than Morella Winmarleigh! How she would glorify everything commonplace with those tender ways of hers! To look at her was like looking

u see, and the time of h