you_ ... with every atom
of me ... I'm loving you; and I'm still ... bracelet-bound...."

This time her lips trembled into a smile. "And it's not one of the
Prayer-book affinities!" she reminded him, a gleam of that other Tara in
her eyes.

"No, thank God--it's not! But you haven't answered me, you know...."

"Roy, what a story! When you know I really said it first!" Her eyes were
saying it again now; and he, bereft of words, mutely held out his arms.

If she paused an instant, it was because she felt even dizzier than he.
But the power of his longing drew her like a physical force--and, as his
lips claimed hers, the terror of love and its truth caught her and swept
her from known shores into uncharted seas....

This was a Roy she scarcely knew. But her heart knew; every pulse of her
awakened womanhood knew....

Presently it became possible to think. Very gently she pushed him back a
little.

"O-oh--I never knew ... you were ... like _that_! And you've crushed my
poor sweet-peas to smithereens! Now--behave! Let me _look_ at you ...
properly, and see what India's done to you. Give me a chance!"

He gave her a chance, still keeping hold of her--to make sure she was
real.

"High-Tower Princess, are we truly US? Or is it a 'bewitchery'?" he
asked, only half in joke. "Will you go turning into a butterfly
presently----?"

"Promise I won't!" Her low laugh was not quite steady. "We're US--truly.
And we've got to Farthest-End, where your dreams come true. D'you
remember--I always said they couldn't. They were too crazy. So I don't
deserve----"

"It's _I_ that don't deserve," he broke out with sudden passion. "And to
find you under our very own tree! Have you forgotten--that day? Of
course _you_ went to the 'tipmost top; and I didn't. It's queer--isn't
it?--how _bits_ of life get printed so sharply on your brain; and great
spaces, on either side, utterly blotted out. That day's one of my bits.
Is it so clear--to you?"

"To _me_----?" She could scarcely believe he did not know....
Unashamedly, she wanted him to know. But part of him was strange to
her--thrillingly strange: which made things not quite so simple.

"Roy," she went on, after a luminous pause, twisting the top button of
his coat. "I'm going to tell you a secret. A big one. For me that Day
was ... the beginning of everything.--Hush--listen!"--Her fingers just
touched his lips. "I'm feeling--rather shy. And if you don't keep quiet,
I can't tell. Of cours