lled him. But he curbed his
irritation, remembering himself as the beseeching hunter, not as the
commanding King.

Quitting the column, he came to where she stood. She did not move, but
she did not take his offered hand, and he let it fall idly by his side,
while he tried to overcrow her with his bold eyes.

"You have never loved or you would not reason so," he argued. "Let me
look into your eyes. I think you love me a little."

He was very close to her now, but she did not surrender to his lips or
his eyes. A kind of wonder was growing in her face, but she met his gaze
as firmly as she answered his words.

"I have never loved, and yet I know what love might be. The spring wind
sighs in these forests, and the nightingales are my friends. Though I
know only of the world by hearsay, I know that men and women have done
great things for love's sake, and are remembered with songs and tears. I
am not afraid of love."

Her eyes were smiling as she spoke. Life seemed clear and easy to her.
Life seemed clear and easy to her suitor; but his clarity, his ease,
were not those of the mountain maid, and he misunderstood her, weighing
her soul in false scales. He wooed her now with a low, triumphant
challenge.

"I believe you love me a little."

She baffled his challenge by her immediate frankness. The powers of life
were not to be denied in shyness by a child who might have been a nymph
of Artemis.

"I think I might love you a great deal. I will love you with all my
heart if you know how to win me. I will surrender my soul to my true
lord and lover when he comes."

Her eyes softened as she made her sweet confession, and his cheeks
burned to hear her. But her purity only tempted him without touching
him. Again he made to clasp her in his arms.

"He has come. Kiss me, Perpetua!" he cried, exultingly; but she flitted
from his reach as subtly as a shadow shifting with the sun, and there
was command in her voice as she motioned to him to hold aloof.

"Wait! I am not to be won in a whirlwind. Great love is gentle love,
hunter."

He could have cursed at her for avoiding him, yet the avoidance spurred
him to succeed, and his words were tender as caresses.

"When I clasp you in my arms you will forget to be so wise."

The fair girl knitted her brows in a frown at his overboldness. For his
life the King could not tell why he refrained from again attempting to
embrace her--and yet he did refrain, standing and listening while s