embled
and fell;--yet this shyness was as delicious as the ecstasy from which
it had come.

But Nature seldom suffers such high moments to pass before they
have been paid for in physical values. As the lovers passed into the
turnpike, there came the sound of a horse at a trot, and a minute later
Jonathan Gay rode toward them, leaning slightly over the neck of his
bay. Seeing them, he lifted his hat and brought down his horse to a
walk, as if prompted by a sudden desire to look closer in Molly's face.
Her rapture evidently became her, for after his first casual glance, he
turned again quickly and smiled into her eyes. Her look met his with the
frankness of a child's and taken unawares--pleased, too, that he should
so openly admire her--she smiled back again with the glow of her secret
happiness enriching her beauty.

In a moment Gay had passed on, and turning to Abel, she saw that a frown
darkened his features.

"He had no right to look at you like that, and you oughtn't to have
smiled back, Molly," he said sternly.

Her nature leaped instantly to arms. "I suppose I've a right to my
smiles," she retorted defiantly.

"No you haven't--not now. An engaged woman ought to be proper and
sober--anybody will tell you so--ask Mr. Mullen. A girl may flirt a
little and nobody thinks any harm of it, but it's different afterwards,
and you know it."

"I know nothing of the kind, and I refuse to be preached to. I might as
well marry Mr. Mullen."

The taunt, though it was uttered half in jest, appeared to torment him
beyond endurance.

"How can you talk to me like this, after what you said five minutes
ago?" he demanded.

His tone approached, unfortunately, the ministerial, and as he spoke,
her anger flamed over her as hotly as her happiness had done a few
minutes earlier.

"That was five minutes ago," she retorted with passion.

Stopping in the road, he caught her arms and held them to her sides,
while the thunder cloud blackened his forehead. Two playthings of
Nature, swept alternately by the calm and the storm of elemental forces,
they faced each other in the midst of mating birds and insects that were
as free as they.

"Do you mean that you've changed, and in five minutes?" he asked.

"I've always told you I could change in three," she retorted.

"I don't believe it--you are behaving foolishly."

"And you are wise, I suppose--preaching and prating to me as if you
stood in the pulpit. When you were begging me so