d redly,
"this is the kind of weather when one catches cold easily. The worst
cold I ever caught was during one of these January thaws." With this
advice they drove away, pleased with their innocent cooperation.

Felicity, laughing at their warning, nevertheless accepted the
suggestion. The long Shaker cloak gave a demure and Puritanical effect
to her figure as her head disappeared beneath the hood, an effect of
outline merely, for the richness of its crimson hue suggested other
associations. For some time they walked in comparative silence through
the park, pausing for a moment on the stone arch that spanned the
stream to note the glint of the moon on the swirling water, and even
when they found themselves at last in Birdseye Avenue, their talk was
all of the night and the sorcery of its effects, veiling and again
unconsciously betraying the nature of their inward thoughts.

A realisation of the fact that his opportunity was slipping by moved
Leigh to desperation. Yet an opportunity for what? Try as he might,
he could never understand how she had come to marry Emmet; her
practical repudiation of the act could not undo it. What was he to
hope for from this cruel and beautiful woman? He was indifferent to
the fact that for some time he had not spoken.

"What are you thinking of?" she asked, turning upon him with a hint of
challenge. "Has the moonlight bewitched you, Mr. Leigh?"

"Not the moonlight," he answered shortly, "though I am bewitched."

She regarded him with an air of inquiry, even of invitation. Was it
possible that she failed to know what might result? Did she hunger for
further evidences of her power?

"Don't look at me like that," he went on, "if you wish me to remember
that you once forbade me to love you. Don't I know how hopeless my
love is? Your eyes have come between me and my work day and night to
invite me to take what you can never give, and what I believe you would
not give if you could. Is n't it enough that you have been cruel to
one man?"

They were passing her house, but neither paused. His passion had led
him to disclose his knowledge of her secret, and her heart was gripped
in a sudden fear. For the moment, it seemed to her that all Warwick
must know, that the fact she now desired to conceal was common
property, to be to-morrow the wonder of the town.

"See how deserted the street is," he said. "It is as if you and I were
walking alone in the world, and who can tell w