e they were guiding my life and that some day I would
be happy, gloriously happy. Somehow, Paul, I always expected to be
happy--always!--till now! Now the stars seem to mock me. I must have
been born under a baleful conjunction, I guess. Oh, I told you, Paul,
that Opals were unlucky. I warned you--didn't I warn you? I may have
tempted you, too, but--I didn't mean to do it!"

"Bless your dear heart, girl, you weren't to blame!"

"But you said--that night--about the tiger----"

"Forgive me, Opal, I was not myself. I was--excited. I didn't mean
that."

After a moment, she said, musingly, "It is just as I said, Paul. I was
born to go to the devil, so it is well--well for you, I mean--and
perhaps for me--that you and I cannot marry." He shook his head, but she
went on, unheeding. "Paul, if I am destined to be a disgrace to
someone--and they say I am--I'd rather bring reproach upon his name than
on yours!"

"But why marry at all, if you feel like that? Why, it's--it's damnable!"

"Don't you see, Paul, I am foreordained to evil--marked a bad woman from
the cradle! Marriage is the only salvation, you know, for girls with my
inheritance. It's the sanctuary that keeps a woman good and 'happy ever
after.'"

"It would be more apt, in my opinion, to drive one to forbidden wine! A
marriage like that, I mean--for one like you."

"But at least a married woman has a _name_--whatever she may do.
She's--protected. She isn't----"

But Paul would hear no more.

"Opal, _we_ were made for each other from the beginning--surely we were.
Some imp has slipped into the scheme of things somewhere and turned it
upside down."

He paused. She looked up searchingly into his eyes.

"Paul, do you love me?"

"Yes, dearest!"

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I am of my own existence! With all my heart, Opal--with all
my soul!"

"Then we mustn't see each other any more!"

"Not any more. You are right, Opal, not any more!"

"But what shall we do, Paul? We shall be sure to meet often. You expect
to stay the summer through, do you not? And we are not going to New
Orleans for several weeks yet--and then?"

"We are going West, Father Paul and I--out on the prairies to rough it
for a while. We were going before long, anyway, and a few weeks sooner
or later won't make any difference. And then--home, back over the sea
again, to face life, to work, to try to be--strong, I suppose."

Paul paused and looked at her passionately.

"Why are you s