on I felt that
all such artificial forms were idle, and that I could reveal my inmost
soul without disguise, in all its naked sincerity.

"I have brought you some flowers," said I, offering her a nosegay which
I had picked. "Will you accept them?"

"I thank you," she replied with a beaming smile as she came and took
them from my hand. "They are very beautiful, and I shall keep them for
your sake."

"For my sake!"

Inspired by love I continued in a voice trembling with emotion,

"Alumion--can you not guess what brings me here?"

A blush rose to her cheek as she bent over the flowers.

"It is because I love you," said I; "because I have loved you ever since
I saw you on the day you cut the sacred lily; because I love
you--worship you--with all my heart and soul."

She was silent.

"If I am wrong, forgive me," I went on in a pleading tone. "Blame the
spell your beauty has cast over me, but do not banish me from your
presence, which is life and light to me."

"Wrong!" she murmured, lifting her wondrous eyes to mine. "Can it be
wrong to love, or to speak of love? Why should I send you away from me
because you love me? Is not love the glory of the heart, as the sun is
the glory of the world? Rejoice, then, in your love as I do in mine."

"As you do?"

"Yes, as I do. I should have spoken sooner, but my heart was full of
happiness. For I also love you. I have loved you from the beginning."

With a cry of unspeakable joy I sprang from the boat, and would have
flung myself at her feet to kiss her hand or the hem of her garment, but
she drew back with a look of apprehension.

"Touch me not," she said gravely, "for by the custom of our land I am
holy. Until to-morrow at sunset I am consecrated to The Giver."

"Pardon my ignorance," I responded rather crestfallen. "Your will shall
be my law. I only wished to manifest my eternal gratitude and devotion
to you."

"Kneel not to me," she rejoined, "but rather to The Giver, who has so
strangely brought us together. How many ages we might have wandered
from world to world without finding each other again!"

"You think we have met before then?" I enquired eagerly, for the same
thought had been haunting my own mind. It seemed to me that I had known
Alumion always.

"Assuredly," she replied, "for you and I are kindred souls who have been
separated in another world, by death or evil; and now that we have met
again, let us be faithful and loving to each other."

"Nothin