s sweetness. Whilst she slept, he felt as one far
removed from her. It was like a beautiful picture upon which he was
gazing. The passion which had been raging within him like an autumn
storm was suddenly stilled. Only the purely aesthetic pleasure of her
presence and his contemplation of it remained. It seemed to him then
that he would have had her stay thus for ever! Before his fixed eyes
there floated a sort of mystic dream. There was another world--was it
the world of sleep or of death?--where they might join hands and dwell
together in beautiful places, and there was no one, not even their
consciences, to say them nay. The dust of earthly passion and sin, and
all the commonplace miseries of life, had faded for ever from their
knowledge. It was their souls which had come together ... and there
was a wonderful peace.

Then she opened her eyes and looked up at him. There was no more
dreaming! The old, miserable passion flooded his heart and senses. His
feet were upon the earth again! The whole world of those strange,
poignant sensations, stronger because of their late coming, welled up
within him.

"Berenice!"

She was only half awake, and she held up her soft, white arms to him,
gleaming like marble through the lace of her wide sleeves. She looked
up at him with the faint smile of a child.

"My love!"

He stooped down, and her arms closed around him like a soft yoke. But
he kissed her forehead so lightly that she scarcely realized that this
was almost his first caress.

"Berenice, you have been angry with me!"

She sat up, and the lamplight fell upon his face.

"You have been ill," she cried in a shocked tone.

"It is nothing. I am well. But to-night--I had a shock; I saw you
with--Mr. Thorndyke!"

Her eyes met his. The hideous phantom which had been dogging his steps
was slain. He was ashamed of that awful but nameless fear.

"It is true. Mr. Thorndyke has offered me an apology, which I am
forced to believe sincere. He has asked me to be his wife! I was
sorry for him."

"He is a bad man! He has spoken ill of you! He has already a wife!"

"I am glad of it. I can obey my instincts now, and see him no more.
Personally he is distasteful to me! I had an idea he was honest! It is
nothing!"

She dismissed the subject with a wave of the hand. To her it was
altogether a minor matter. Then she looked at him.

"Well!"

"You never answered my letter."

"No, there was no answer. I came back."

"You did