y sat down
together.

"Poor girl!" he said softly. "It hasn't been easy, has it?"

Then she realized that he knew all that she had so strenuously sought to
hide. The struggle was over and she was beaten. A great wave of emotion
went through her. Before she could check herself, she was shaken with
sobs.

"No, no!" he said, and laid his hand upon her head. "You mustn't cry.
It's all right, my darling. It's all right. What is there to cry about?"

She clung faster to him, and her hold was passionate. "Everard," she
whispered, "Everard,--I--can't leave you!"

"Ah!" he said "We are up against it now."

"I can't!" she said again. "I can't."

His hand was softly stroking her hair. Such tenderness as she had never
dreamed of was in his touch. "Leave off crying!" he said. "God knows I
want to make things easier for you--not harder."

"I can bear anything," she told him brokenly, "anything in the world--if
only I am with you. I can't leave you. You won't--you can't--force me to
that."

"Stella! Stella!" he said.

His voice checked her. She knew that she had hurt him. She lifted her
face quickly to his.

"Oh, darling, forgive me!" she said. "I know you would not."

He kissed the quivering lips she raised without words, and thereafter
there fell a silence between them while the mystery of the night seemed
to press closer upon them, and the veiled goddess turned in her sleep
and subtly smiled.

Stella uttered a long, long sigh at last. "You are good to bear with me
like this," she said rather piteously.

"Better now?" he questioned gently.

She closed her eyes from the grave scrutiny of his. "I am--quite all
right, dear," she said. "And I am taking great care of myself.
Please--please don't worry about me!"

His hand sought and found hers. "I have been worrying about you for a
long time," he said.

She gave a start of surprise. "I never thought you noticed anything."

"Yes." With a characteristic touch of grimness he answered her. "I
noticed when you first began to colour your cheeks for my benefit. I
knew it was only for mine, or of course I should have been furious."

"Oh, Everard!" She hid her face against him again with a little shamed
laugh.

He went on without mercy. "I am not an easy person to deceive, you know.
You really might have saved yourself the trouble. I hoped you would give
in sooner. That too would have saved trouble."

"But I haven't given in," she said.

His hand closed upon hers. "Y