rich as well as famous, and then perhaps you'll be sorry you ever met
me----"

"In that case I'll call upon the public hangman and ask him to give me a
quick despatch," he said promptly; "Though I shouldn't be worth the
expense of a rope!"

"Angus, you won't be serious!"

"Serious? I never was more serious in my life! And I want my question
answered."

"What question?"

"Do you love me? Yes or no!"

He held her close and looked her full in the face as he made this
peremptory demand. Her cheeks grew crimson, but she met his searching
gaze frankly.

"Ah, though you are a man, you are a spoilt child!" she said. "You know
I love you more than I can say!--and yet you want me to tell you what
can never be told!"

He caught her to his heart, and kissed her passionately.

"That's enough!" he said--"For if you love me, Mary, your love is love
indeed!--it's no sham; and like all true and heavenly things, it will
never change. I believe, if I turned out to be an utter wastrel, you'd
love me still!"

"Of course I should!" she answered.

"Of course you would!" and he kissed her again. "Mary, _my_ Mary, if
there were more women like you, there would be more men!--men in the
real sense of the word--manly men, whose love and reverence for women
would make them better and braver in the battle of life. Do you know, I
can do anything now, with you to love me! I don't suppose,"--and here he
unconsciously squared his shoulders--"I really don't suppose there is a
single difficulty in my way that I won't conquer!"

She smiled, leaning against him.

"If you feel like that, I am very happy!" she said.

As she spoke, she raised her eyes to the sky, and uttered an involuntary
exclamation.

"Look, look!" she cried--"How glorious!"

The heavens above them were glowing red,--forming a dome of burning
rose, deepening in hue towards the sea, where the outer rim of the
nearly vanished sun was slowly disappearing below the horizon--and in
the centre of this ardent glory, a white cloud, shaped like a dove with
outspread wings, hung almost motionless. The effect was marvellously
beautiful, and Angus, full of his own joy, was more than ever conscious
of the deep content of a spirit attuned to the infinite joy of nature.

"It is like the Holy Grail," he said, and, with one arm round the woman
he loved, he softly quoted the lines:--

"And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail,
Rose-red, with beatings in it as if alive!"