ment--a silvery ocean of light
breaking upon earth-bound shores. A path of it lay along the
veranda--opal and tourmaline and pearl, sharply turned aside by the
shadow of the rose.

Madame drew her breath quickly. There they stood, partly in the dusk
and partly in the light, close in each other's arms, with the misty
silver lying lovingly upon Edith's hair.

[Sidenote: Pledges of Love]

She sank back into a chair, remembering, with vague terror, the vision
she had seen in the crystal ball. So, then, it was true, as she might
have known. Sorely troubled, and with her heart aching for them both,
she crept up-stairs.

* * * * *

"Boy," whispered Edith, shrinking from him. "Oh, Boy! The whole world
lies between you and me!"

His only answer was to hold her closer still, to turn her mouth again to
his. "Not to-night," he breathed, with his lips on hers. "God has given
us to-night!"

White and shaken, but with her eyes shining like stars, at last she
broke away from him. She turned toward the house, but he caught her and
held her back.

"Say it," he pleaded. "Say you love me!"

"I do," she whispered. "Oh, have pity, and let me go!"

"And I," he answered, with his face illumined, "love you with all my
heart and soul and strength and will--with every fibre of my being, for
now and for ever. I am yours absolutely, while earth holds me, and even
beyond that."

[Sidenote: What Matters]

Edith looked up quickly, half afraid. His eyes were glowing with
strange, sweet fires.

"Say it!" he commanded. "Tell me you are mine!"

"I am," she breathed. "God knows I am, but no--I had forgotten for the
moment!"

She broke into wild sobbing, and he put his arm around her with infinite
tenderness. "Hush," he said, as one might speak to a child. "What has
been does not matter--nothing matters now but this. In all the ways of
Heaven, you are mine--mine for always, by divine right!"

"Yes," she said, simply, and lifted her tear-stained face to his.

He kissed her again, not with passion, but with that same indescribable
tenderness. Neither said a word. They went into the house together, he
found her candle, lighted it, and gave it to her.

She took it from him, smiling, though her hands trembled. Back in the
shadow he watched her as she ascended, with a look of exaltation upon
her face. Crimson petals were falling all around her, and he saw the
stain of the rose upon her white gown, where he h