form certain low and tender words, and
that her sapphirine eyes swept him before she controlled herself to go
on.

"Aunt Paula says it is part of the struggle. Some people, when the
power is coming into them, are violent. Men, she says, have smashed
furniture and torn their bodies. I am not strong to do such things, but
only weak to endure. And so it takes me as it does.

"Don't you see?" she added, "that if I'm to give up so many powers of
my mind, so many needs of my soul, to this thing, I can afford to give
up a few powers of my body? Am I to become a Light without sacrificing
all? So I keep away from physicians. It is Aunt Paula's wish, and she
has always known what is best for me."

The automobile was running at an even fifteen miles an hour down a
broad, unobstructed parkway. He could turn his eyes from his business
and let his hands guide. So he looked full at her, as he said:

"She may have a hard time keeping you away from this physician!"

That, it seemed, amused her. The strain in her face gave way to a
smile.

"For yourself, she likes you, I think," said Annette.

"She has a most apt and happy way of showing it," he responded, his
slights rising up in him.

"You mustn't judge her by last night," replied Annette. "Aunt Paula has
many manners. I think she assumes that one when she is studying people.
Then think of the double reason she has for receiving you coldly--my
whole future, as she plans it, hangs on it--and she spoke nicely of
you. She likes your eyes and your wit and your manners. But--"

"But I am an undesirable acquaintance for her niece just the same!"

"Have I not said that you are--the obstacle? Haven't her controls told
her that? If not, why did she telegraph to me when she did?" Then, as
they turned from the park corner and made towards Riverside Drive,
something in her changed.

"Must we talk this out whenever we meet? You said once that you would
teach me to play. Ah, teach me now! I need it!"

And though he turned and twisted back toward the subject, she was pure
girl for the next hour. The river breezes blew sparkle into her eyes;
the morning intoxicated her tongue. She chattered of the trees, the
water, the children on the benches, the gossiping old women. She made
him stop to buy chestnuts of an Italian vendor, she led him toward his
tales of the Philippines. He plunged into the Islands like a white
Othello, charming a super-white Desdemona. It was his story of the
burning