hen I did not know enough to be. And now, Garry, when I am
less ignorant than I was--when I have divined enough of my unknown self
to be afraid--dearest, I am not."

She bent gently above the boyish head lying face downward on her
knees--waited timidly for some response, touched his hair.

"I am listening," he nodded.

She said: "My will to deny you, my courage to control myself seem to be
waning. I love you so; and it is becoming so much worse, such a blind,
unreasoning love.... And--do you think it will grow so much worse that I
could be capable of anything ignoble? Do you think I might be mad enough
to beg my freedom? I--I don't know where it is leading me, dear. Do you?
It is that which bewilders me--that I should love you so--that I should
not be afraid to love you so.... Hush, dear! Don't speak--for I shall
never be able to tell you this if you speak, or look at me. And I want
to ask you a question. May I? And will you keep your eyes covered?"

"Yes."

"Then--there are memories which burn my cheeks--hush!--I do not regret
them.... Only, what am I changing into that I am capable of
forgetting--everything--in the happiness of consenting to things I never
dreamed of--like this"--bending and laying her lips softly against his
cheek.... "That was wrong; it ought to frighten me. But it does not."

He turned, looking up into the flushed young face and drew it closer
till their cheeks touched.

"Don't look at me! Why do you let me drift like this? It is madness--to
give up to each other the way we do--"

"I wish we could give up the world for each other."

"I wish so too. I would--except for the others. Do you suppose I'd
hesitate if it were not for them?"

They looked at each other with a new and subtler audacity.

"You see," she said with a wistful smile, "_this_ is not Shiela Cardross
who sits here smiling into those brown eyes of yours. I think I died
before you ever saw me; and out of the sea and the mist that day some
changeling crept into your boat for your soul's undoing. Do you remember
in Ingoldsby--'The cidevant daughter of the old Plantagenet line '?"

They laughed like children.

"Do you think our love-tempted souls are in any peril?" he asked
lightly.

The question arrested her mirth so suddenly that he thought she must
have misunderstood.

"What is it, Shiela?" he inquired, surprised.

"Garry--will you tell me something--if you can?... Then, what does it
mean, the saying--'souls lost thr