"I wonder whether you could guess?" he said, as he thought of her

father's words, his assertion that Stafford was to be his son-in-law.

"I suppose you must."

Her gaze was as steady as his, but her lips quivered slightly.

"I would rather you should tell me than that I should I guess," she

said in a low voice. "I might be wrong."

He was not in a condition to notice the significance of her last words,

and he went on with a kind of desperation.

"I brought you here into the garden, Miss Falconer, to ask you if you'd

be my wife."

Advertisement..

They had stopped just within the radius of an electric light, held

aloft by a grinning satyr, and Stafford saw her face grow paler and

paler in the seconds that followed the momentous question. He could see

her bosom heaving under the half-open fur cloak, felt her hand close

for an instant on his arm.

"Do you wish me to say 'Yes'?" she asked in a low voice.

The red flooded Stafford's face for a moment, and his eyes fell under

her fixed regard.

"What answer does one generally hope for when one puts such a

question?" he said, trying to smile. "I want you to be my wife, and I

hope, with all my heart, that you will say 'Yes.'"

"'With all your heart,'" she echoed, slowly, almost inaudibly. "'With

all your heart.' With all mine, I answer 'Yes.'"

As she murmured the words--and, like that of most cold women when they

are intensely moved, her voice could be exquisitely sweet with its

thrill of passion, all the sweeter for its rarity--she insensibly drew

nearer to him and her hand stole to his shoulder. Her eyes were lifted

to his, and they shone with the love that was coursing through her

veins, almost stopping the beating of her heart. Love radiated from her

as the light radiated from the lamp the mocking satyr held above them.

Stafford was at his best and worst, a man and not a block of stone and

wood, and touched, almost fired, by the passion so close to him, he put

his arm round her waist and bent his head until his lips nearly touched

hers.

Her eyes closed and she was surrendering herself to the kiss, when

suddenly she drew her head back, and, keeping him from her, looked up

at him. "Is it with all your heart?" she whispered. "You have never

spoken to me of--love before. Is it with all your heart?"




Most Popular