common-sense."

"I have told you already _who_ it is that I need. Isn't that enough?"

The thrill in her low tone set all the man in him on fire. The
influence of the hour was strong upon him.

"My God!" he muttered under his breath. "How can mere flesh and blood
hold out against you?"

"Must you hold out against me--even after what I said?"

She nestled nearer, and stray tendrils of hair softly brushed his
cheek. His lips whitened, but he set them close. Her touch, the
perfume of her passion, had their exalting effect on him. Her weakness
challenged his strength.

"Yes; I must," he answered quietly. "For your sake, my dear, and for
my own self-respect. I am fighting this thing, you understand, with
every weapon at my command. And until I see my way clear out on the
other side, I will not--I dare not--take you back. Now come. It is
high time you were asleep. We can't stay out here together all night."

"We have every right to . . . if we choose," she murmured, still
rebellious.

"You forget, I am to teach you common-sense! There is to-morrow to be
thought of, and your long ride back to Dalhousie."

A small shiver ran through her.

"I am afraid of to-morrow. I shall wake up and feel as if all this had
been a dream. When shall I see you again . . . alone?"

"I will come up and call on you the day after!" he said, assuming a
deliberate lightness in sheer self-defence. "Don't let me find Garth
there, though; or I warn you I shall not be accountable for my
behaviour!"

He rose on the words, and lifted her to her feet. They descended the
slope in silence, walking a little apart, as if accentuating the fact
that their reunion in this June night of enchantment and faint stars
was an incomplete thing after all.

The moon was near her zenith; and, outside the formless dark of the
forest, the great glade held her radiance as a goblet holds wine. Past
the half-hidden temple of the holy lake they moved leisurely towards
the cluster of tents that showed like a pallid excrescence at the
forest's edge. To-night again, as on that earlier unforgettable day,
they seemed the only living beings in a world of shadows and folded
wings; and the decree of separation, coming at such a moment, put a
severe strain on their self-control.

Fifty feet from Quita's tent they stood still.

She held out her hands. He pressed them closely between his own, that
were strangely cold, and lifted them to his lips. Then