th a hidden lustre of gold and flame.

She held out her arms to him as she came, running the last few steps.

"Suzanne!" called her mother. "For shame!"

"Hush, mama!" declared Suzanne defiantly. "I don't care. I don't care.
It's your fault. You shouldn't have lied to me. He wouldn't have come if
I hadn't sent for him. I'm going back to New York. I told you I was."

She did not say, "Oh, Eugene!" as she came close, but gathered his face
in her hands and looked eagerly into his eyes. His burned into hers. She
stepped back and opened wide her arms only to fold them tightly about
him.

"At last! At last!" he said, kissing her feverishly. "Oh, Suzanne! Oh,
Flower Face!"

"I knew you would come," she said. "I told her you would. I'll go back
with you."

"Yes, yes," said Eugene. "Oh, this wonderful night! This wonderful
climax! Oh, to have you in my arms again!"

Mrs. Dale stood by, white, intense. To think a daughter of hers should
act like this, confound her so, make her a helpless spectator of her
iniquity. What an astounding, terrible, impossible thing!

"Suzanne!" she cried. "Oh, that I should have lived to see this day!"

"I told you, mama, that you would regret bringing me up here," declared
Suzanne. "I told you I would write to him. I knew you would come," she
said to Eugene, and she squeezed his hand affectionately.

Eugene inhaled a deep breath and stared at her. The night, the stars
swung around him in a gorgeous orbit. Thus it was to be victorious. It
was too beautiful, too wonderful! To think he should have triumphed in
this way! Could any other man anywhere ever have enjoyed such a victory?

"Oh, Suzanne," he said eagerly, "this is like a dream; it's like heaven!
I can scarcely believe I am alive."

"Yes, yes," she replied, "it is beautiful, perfect!" And together they
strolled away from her mother, hand in hand.

CHAPTER XX

The flaw in this situation was that Eugene, after getting Suzanne in his
arms once more, had no particular solution to offer. Instead of at once
outlining an open or secret scheme of escape, or taking her by main
force and walking off with her, as she more than half expected him to
do, here he was repeating to her what her mother had told him, and
instead of saying "Come!" he was asking her advice.

"This is what your mother proposed to me just now, Suzanne," he began,
and entered upon a full explanation. It was a vision of empire to him.

"I said to her," he sai