ed him to hold it
for a little, unresisting, as he led her to where a fallen column at the
edge of the pine wood offered a noble throne.

"Would you have grieved if I had not come again?" he asked her, as they
sat side by side, and the girl answered, simply:

"Much, for my own sake and for yours."

"For mine, too, maiden?" Robert asked, wondering at her words.

[Illustration: "ROBERT CAUGHT HER OUTSTRETCHED HANDS"]

Perpetua shook back her mane of flame.

"Yes, for you said you would come, and truth is the best thing in the
world."

If she had seemed adorable before in the green heart of the ancient
wood, she seemed many times more adorable now to the hot eyes of the man
as she sat there so quietly, speaking so frankly, looking at him so
frankly. He would linger no more over this sweet preface of pleasure. He
asked her eagerly:

"Shall I tell you the best truth in the world? I love you."

The girl's calm eyes studied his flushed face gravely.

"Love is the greatest truth or the greatest lie in the world. We have
met but twice. Can you love so quickly?"

The fierce desire which the King called love clamored for
interpretation. Robert spoke swiftly, warmly, feeding his greedy eyes
with her beauty.

"When I drank the white water from your hands, I drank love with it.
When I looked into your glorious eyes love leaped from them, all armed,
and conquered me. The wood wind blew one tress of your red hair across
my face and the red flame of love ran through my veins and burned out
all memories save only the memory of your face. I would lose a kingdom
to kiss you on the lips. I would surrender the power and the glory to be
kissed upon the lips by you."

He made as if to clasp her in his arms, but in a moment she eluded him
with the quickness of some forest creature. She had risen and was
standing at a little distance before he realized that his longing arms
clasped emptiness.

"You speak with the speech of angels," Perpetua said, speaking low;
"wonderful words that shine like little stars, that make me tremble as
if they were little flames that played about me." She paused for a
moment as if thoughts troubled her; then went on: "And yet I think you
say too much. All I should ask of my lover would be but a true heart and
a true hand."

Anger strove with admiration on Robert's cheeks and in his eyes. He was
untrained to any cross, and the composure with which the girl at once
accepted and held off his homage ga