elf astride the horse and galloped away with me.... They
did those things once, Monsieur Scarlett--on this very spot, too, in
the days of the Saxon pirates."

The whirring monotone of the spinning-wheel suddenly filled the house;
Sylvia was singing at her wheel:

"Woe to the maids of Paradise!
Yvonne!
Twice have the Saxons landed; twice!
Yvonne!
Yet shall Paradise see them thrice,
Yvonne! Yvonne! Marivonik!"

"The prophecy of that Breton spinning song is being fulfilled," I
said. "For the third time we Saxons have come to Paradise, you see."

"But this time our Saxons are not very formidable," she said, raising
her beautiful gray eyes; "and the gwerz says, 'Woe to the maids of
Paradise!' Do you intend to bring woe upon us maids of Paradise--do
you come to carry us off, monsieur?"

"If you will go with--me," I said, smiling.

"All of us?"

"Only one, madame."

She started to speak, then her eyes fell. She laughed uncertainly.
"Which one among us, if you please--mizilour skler ha brillant deuz
ar fidelite?"

"Met na varwin Ket Kontant, ma na varwan fidel," I said, slowly, as
the words of the song came back to me. "I shall choose only the
fairest and loveliest, madame. You know it is always that way in the
story." My voice was not perfectly steady, nor was hers when she
smiled and wished me happiness and a long life with the maid of
Paradise I had chosen, even though I took her by force.

Then constraint crept in between us, and I was grimly weighing the
friendship this woman had given me--weighing it in the balance against
a single hope.

Once she looked across at me with questioning eyes in which I thought
I read dawning disappointment. It almost terrified me.... I could not
lose her confidence,... I could not, and go through life without
it.... But I could live a hopeless life to its end with that
confidence.... And I must do so,... and be content.

"I suppose," said I, thinking aloud, "that I had better go to
England."

"When?" she asked, without raising her head.

"In a day or two. I can find employment there, I think."

"Is it necessary that you find employment ... so soon?"

"Yes," I said, with a meaningless laugh, "I fear it is."

"What will you do?"

"Oh, the army--horses--something of that kind. Riding-master,
perhaps--perhaps Scotland Yard. I may not be able