hands touched and clung now, desperately. Together they must find
their way out.
"I am--I was--the boy of the Far Hill Place. I played for you--once--to
dance--right here!"
Something seemed snapping in Priscilla's brain.
"Yes," she whispered, breathing hard and quick. "I remember now: you
taught me music, and--and you taught me--love, but you told me not to let
them kill my ideal; and, oh! I haven't! I haven't!"
She shut her eyes and reeled forward. She did not faint, but for a moment
her senses refused to accept impressions.
Travers knelt and caught her to him as she fell. Her dear head was upon
his knee once more, and he pressed his lips to the wonderful hair from
which the little hat had fallen. Then her eyes opened, but her lips
trembled.
"You--came all the way from the Place Beyond the Winds, little girl, to
show me my ideal again; to strike your blow--for women." Travers was
whispering.
"Your ideal? But no, dear love. Your ideal is back there--in the Garden."
"And yours? I--I do not understand, Priscilla. I am still dazed. What
Garden?"
"The big world, my dear man; your world."
"My blessed child! Do not look like that. Do you think I'm going back
without you? I've been looking for--Priscilla Glynn--fool that I was!
And you were--great heavens! You were the little nurse in St. Albans!"
"Yes--and you and I--stood by Jerry-Jo McAlpin's bed--you and I! That was
his secret."
"Priscilla, what do you mean?"
Then she told him, clinging to him, fearing that he might fall from her
hold as she had once fallen from his, on the mountain across the sea.
"And you danced before my eyes as only one woman on earth can dance--and
I did not know! Tricked by a name and--and the change in me! You were
always the same--the flame-spirit that I first saw--here!"
"And you played--that tune, and you were divinely good; and I--I did not
know."
"But we drifted straight to each other, my girl!"
"Only--to part."
"To part? Never! It's past the Dreamer's Rock for us, my sweet, and out
to the open sea. We'll slip our moorings to-night, and send word after!
I must have you, and at once. I know what it means to see you escaping my
hold. Flame-spirits are elusive."
"And--and Margaret?"
"She--needs you. A fortnight ago I saw her, and this is what she said,
smiling her old, brave smile: 'I think I could bear it better if her
dear, shining head was in sight. Greater love hath no woman! Find her and
bring he
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