n't be for a long time," she
said.

"How long?" he said.

"I don't know. Dick. I haven't the least idea. I had almost made up my
mind never to marry at all."

"Really?" he said. "Do you know, so had I. But I changed it the moment I
met you. When did you change yours?"

She laughed, but without much mirth. "I'm not sure that--"

"No, don't you say that to me!" he interrupted. "It's not cricket. You
are--quite sure, though you rather wish you weren't. Isn't that the
position? Honestly now!"

"Honestly," she said, "I can't be engaged to you yet."

"All right," he said unexpectedly. "You needn't call it that if you
don't want to. Facts are facts. We may not be engaged, but we
are--permanently--attached. We'll leave it at that."

Again swiftly she glanced towards him. "No, but, Dick--"

"Yes, but, Juliet--" His hand moved suddenly, imprisoning both of hers.
"You can't get away," he said, speaking very rapidly, "any more than I
can. If you put the whole world between us, we shall still belong to each
other. That is irrevocable. It isn't your doing, and it isn't mine. It's
a Power above and beyond us both. We can't help ourselves."

He spoke with fierce earnestness, a depth of concentration, that gripped
her just as his music had gripped her the night before. She sat
motionless, bound by the same spell that had bound her then. She did not
want to meet his eyes, but they drew irresistibly. In the end she did so.

For a space not reckoned by time she surrendered herself to a mastery
that would not be denied. She met the kindling flame of his worship, and
was strangely awed and humbled thereby. She knew now beyond all question
that this man was not as most men. He came to her with the first,
untainted offering of his love. No other woman had been before her in
that inner sanctuary which he now flung wide for her to enter. There was
a purity, a primitive simplicity, about his passion which made her
realize that very clearly. He was no boy. He had lived a life of hard
self-discipline and had put his youth behind him long since. But he
brought all the intensity of a boy's adoration to back his manhood's
strength of purpose, and before it she was impotent and half-afraid. The
men of her world had all been of a totally different mould. She was
accustomed to cynicism and the half-mocking homage of jaded experience.
But this was new, this was wonderful--a force that burned and dazzled
her, yet which attracted her irresistib