age and turning, stretched out his arms, suddenly
snatched the girl for an instant close to his heart, and lifted her to
the ground.

The warden opened the gate, swinging his lantern high to light the way,
and by its flickering rays Lennox Dunbar saw the beautiful white face,
the wonderful, sad eyes, the wan lips contracted by a spasm of pain.

She turned and followed the warden; the lights wavered; the great iron
gate swung back in its groove, the bolt fell with a sullen clang; the
massive key rattled, a chain clanked, and all was darkness as she was
locked irrevocably into her living tomb.

CHAPTER XXI.

The annual resurrection had begun; the pulse of Nature quickened, rose,
throbbed under the vernal summons; pale, tender grass-blades peeped
above the mould, houstonias lifted their blue disks to the March sun,
and while the world of birds commenced their preludes where silky young
leaves shyly fluttered, earth and sky were wrapped in that silvery haze
with which coy Springtime half veils her radiant face. The vivid
verdure of wheat and oat fields, the cooler aqua marina of long
stretches of rye, served as mere groundwork for displaying in bold
relief the snowy tufts of plum, the creamy clusters of pear, and the
glowing pink of peach orchards that clothed the hillsides, and brimmed
the valleys with fragrant prophecies of fruitful plenty.

Dimmed by distance to fine lines of steel, wavered the flocks of wild
geese flying from steaming bayous to icy lakes in the far North, and
now and then as the ranks dipped, a white flash lit the vignettes
traced against the misty, pearl-gray sky.

Spring sunshine had kissed the lips of death, and universal life sprang
palpitating to begin anew the appointed yearly cycle; yet amid the
flush and stir of mother earth, there lay hopelessly still and cold
some human hopes, which no divine "Come forth" would ever revivify.

Into the face of Leo Gordon had crept that strange and indescribable
change, which is analogous to the peculiar aspect of the clear heavens
when dark clouds just faintly rim the horizon, below which they heap
their sombre, sullen masses, projecting upward weird shadows.

Apparently the sun of prosperity burned in the zenith and gilded her
path with happiness, but analyzed by the prism of her consciousness
the brightness faded, the colors paled, and grim menace crossed all,
like the dark lines of Fraunhofer. To be chosen, loved, wooed and won
excl