and more enduring than adamant, had leagued her to him.
Consecrated by the blessing of her trust, he must not dare distrust
himself. If the past were blindly wrong, she was the God-given clew to
guide him right.

An unspeakable tenderness melted them both,--him for what he
received, her for what she gave. The rich bud of their love bloomed at
once in full, fragrant stateliness. Their hearts, left unprotected by
their out-opened arms, demanded shelter, and found it in nestling on
each other. Heaven touched earth in the tremulous, fiery calm of their
meeting lips,--magnets whose currents flowed from the mysterious poles
of humanity.

At such moments--the happiest life counts but few--angels draw near,
but veil their happy eyes. Spirits of evil grind their teeth and
frown; and, for one awful instant, perceive their own deformity!

Before yet that dear embrace had lasted an eternity, the man felt the
woman shiver in his arms. The celestial heights and spaces dwindled,
the angelic music fainted. Heaven rolled back and left them alone on
earth. Manetho stood on the threshold between the sphinxes, wearing
such a smile as God has never doomed us to see on a child's face!

To few men comes the opportunity of facing in this life those whom
they believed they had put out of it. One might expect the palpable
assurance of the victim's survival would electrify the fancied
murderer. But to Balder's mind, his personal responsibility could not
be thus lightened; and any emotion of selfish relief was therefore
denied him. On the other hand, such inferences as he had been able to
draw from things seen and heard were not to Manetho's advantage. While
he could not but rejoice to have been spared actually hurrying a soul
from the life of free will to an unchangeable eternity, yet his
dominant instinct was to man himself for the hostile issues still to
arise. He looked at the being through whom his own life had received
so dark a stain with stern, keen eyes.

Gnulemah remained within the circle of her lover's arm. She seemed but
little interested in Manetho's appearance, save in so far as he
invaded the sanctity of her new immortal privilege. She had never
known anxiety on his account; he had never appealed to her feeling for
himself. If she loved him, it was with an affection unconscious
because untried. She had shivered in Balder's embrace at the moment of
the Egyptian's presence, but before having set eyes on him. Had the
nearness o