not the Colonel, You mustn't ask questions,
Stella, if I ever expand at all. If you do, I shall shut up like a clam,
and you may get pinched in the process."

She slipped her hand through his arm. "I will remember," she said.
"Thank you--ever so much--for telling me. I will bury it very deep. No
one shall ever suspect it through me."

"Thanks," he said. He pressed her hand, but he kept his eyes lowered. "I
know I can trust you. You won't try to find out the things I keep
back."

"Oh, never!" she said. "Never! I shall never try to pry into affairs of
State."

He smiled rather cynically. "That is a very wise resolution," he said.
"I shall tell Bernard that I have married the most discreet woman in the
Empire--as well as the most beautiful."

"Did you marry her for her beauty or for her discretion?" asked Stella.

"Neither," he said.

"Are you sure?" She leaned her cheek against his shoulder. "It's no good
pretending with me you know, I can see through anything, detect any
disguise, so far as you are concerned."

"Think so?" said Monck.

"Answer my question!" she said.

"I didn't know you asked one." His voice was brusque; he pushed his pipe
into his mouth without looking at her.

She reached up and daringly removed it. "I asked what you married me
for," she said. "And you suck your horrid pipe and won't even look at
me."

His arm went round her. He looked down into her eyes and she saw the
fiery worship in his own. For a moment its intensity almost frightened
her. It was like the red fire of a volcano rushing forth upon her--a
fierce, unshackled force. For a space he held her so, gazing at her;
then suddenly he crushed her to him, he kissed her burningly till she
felt as if caught and consumed by the flame.

"My God!" he said passionately. "Can I put--that--into words?"

She clung to him, but she was trembling. There was that about him at the
moment that startled her. She was in the presence of something terrible,
something she could not fathom. There was more than rapture in his
passion. It was poignant with a fierce defiance that challenged all the
world.

She lay against his breast in silence while the storm that she had so
unwittingly raised spent itself. Then at last as his hold began to
slacken she took courage.

She laid her cheek against his hand. "Ah, don't love me too much at
first, darling," she said. "Give me the love that lasts!"

"And you think my love will not last?" he said, his voi