Uncanny Tales

vet incircles the jewel in its case. Occasionally faint sounds came from the dis

busy day, but he had turned sideways in his seat, t

benediction of her hands, the fragrance of her corn-gold hair, the sight of her slenderness: this she had guessed and gloried in. Till n

spell that had bound them speechless,

me. What, before that day, has gone to the making and marring of me, and the making and perfecting of you, is n

" she

ungrily. She felt them and longed for h

ave you. That was in the early days of our talks here-before you made it so courageously clear to me th

ain, as again she faced the creed she h

And because it is so, you

es

space. It was a look to bridge death with. But even beneath th

he fou

or it all; I can't-that's not my way. I have always demanded of you, demanded enormously, and received my measure pressed down and running over. Now I am goin

credulously, lips parted. S

t, with a superb simplicity: "But, you must kis

emed that in one stride he would have c

t ludicrous fear of himself. Then, with a

you understand what that means? Think of it, just for a moment, and then realise that I am not

ot because

se I funk the torture of kissing you once and l

r m

lights-the realisation of them has given me a reverence for you that you don't dream of. I have put you in

that," the girl said fai

nd last time by a man like me. Suppose I kissed you now? I should awaken something in you as yet half asleep. You're young and pulsing wit

I don

had left you you would not go against your morality, perhaps, but you would ad

e going awa

it was right and good to want me, wouldn't you find me, send for me, call for me? And I should come. God! I ca

ng sigh. Then she tried

isn't it?

the movement a strand of the corn-gold ha

eness, his eyes on the little, tumbling lock, "I shall not att

door sh

n," she said. "You

rom where she stood, she could see

any way of cutting off to-morrow-all the to-morrows-with the danger they