y look and movement.

"Let me take you a run with the wind," he said, holding out his hand.
"You shan't come to any harm."

Her eyes and her happy flush betrayed her. She put her hand in his, and
away they flew, up the course of the Cherwell, through the flooded
meadows. It seemed the very motion of gods; the world fell away. Then,
coming back, they saw Magdalen Tower, all silver and ebony under the
rising moon, and the noble arch of the bridge. The world was all
transmuted. Connie's only hold on the kind, common earth seemed to lie
in this strong hand to which she clung; and yet in that touch, that
hold, lay the magic that was making life anew.

But soon the wind had risen gustily, and was beating in her face,
catching at her breath.

"This is too cold for you!" said Falloden abruptly; and wheeling round,
he had soon guided her into a more sheltered place, and there, easily
gliding up and down, soul and sense fused in one delight, they passed
one of those hours for which there is no measure in our dull human time.
They would not think of the past; they shrank from imagining the future.
There were shadows and ghosts behind them, and ahead of them; but the
sheer present mastered them.

Before they parted, Falloden told his companion that the Orpheus would
arrive from Paris the following day with a trio of French workmen to set
it up. The electric installation was already in place. Everything would
be ready by the evening. The instrument was to be placed behind a screen
in the built-out room, once a studio, which Falloden had turned into a
library. Otto rarely or never went there. The room looked north, and he,
whose well-being hung upon sunshine, disliked it. But there was no other
place for the Orpheus in the little cottage, and Falloden who had been
getting new and thick curtains for the windows, improving the
fire-place, and adding some armchairs, was eagerly hopeful that he could
turn it into a comfortable music-room for Otto in the winter evenings,
while he--if necessary--read his law elsewhere.

"Will you come for a rehearsal to-morrow?" he asked her. "Otto comes
back the day after."

"No, no! I won't hear anything, not a note--till he comes! But is he
strong enough?" she added wistfully. Strong enough, she meant, to bear
agitation and surprise. But Falloden reported that Sorell knew
everything that was intended, and approved. Otto had been very listless
and depressed in town; a reaction no doubt from his s