a mile from the Douglas house, at the edge of
the meadow round which Hugh was driving a mower, the steady, metallic
clicking of the shuttle-like sickle sounding distinct from the farther
side of the motionless green expanse. Mary Hope was standing leaning
against one lone little poplar tree, her hat in her hand, and her eyes
staring dully into the world of sorrowful thoughts. Relief and a
great, hungry tenderness flooded the soul of Lance when he saw her. He
pulled up and swung off beside her.

"Girl--thank the good God you're all right," he said, and took her in
his arms, the veins on his temples beating full with his hot blood. "I
had to come. I had to see you. You've haunted me. Your voice has
called me--I was afraid--I had to come--and now I'm not going to let
you go. Oh, girl, you're mine! By all the powers of heaven and earth,
you're mine! The Lorrigan name--what does it matter? You're mine--I
love you. You'll love me. I'll _make_ you love me. You'll love me till
you won't care who I am or who you are, or whether there are any other
people in the world--you'll love me so! And I'll love you always,
always,--to death and beyond, and beyond what lies after that. Girl,
girl--you do need me! You need my love. You need it because it's the
biggest thing in the world--and your love is going to match it. We'll
get married--we'll make a world of our own, just you and I. We won't
care where we make it--it will be our world, the world of our love.
Are you game? Are you game to love Lance the way Lance loves you? Oh,
girl, tell me!"

A chill breath swept them like the memory of her father's hate. A
deep, basso rumble drowned whatever reply she stammered. He sheltered
her in his arms, kissed her lips, her eyes, her hair, went back to her
lips again.

"Oh, girl--when a Lorrigan loves--!" He cried softly, exultantly. "I
tried not to--but I had to love you. It's Fate. Are you afraid to love
me back? Are you afraid?"

"No Lorrigan can cry coward to a Douglas," Mary Hope panted. "But--but
my mother will be that--"

"My mother will be that--all of that, and more," Lance stopped her,
still exulting in her love. "All the Lorrigans--what does it matter?
Life's for you and me to live, you girl with the bluest eyes in the
world. When will you marry me? To-day? Tell me to-day!"

"Oh!" gasped Mary Hope, breathless still from the suddenness of it
all. "Oh, not to-day--oh, but the headlong way you have! I--I canna
think. I--"

"I do