hy did we find ourselves so near
akin--so strangely, so irresistibly drawn to each other? Answer me,
Opal! Why was it, if we weren't created to be--_one_?"

After a moment of waiting he said, "Listen to the music, Opal! Only
listen! Doesn't it remind you of dreams and visions--of fairyland, of
happiness, and--love?"

But she could not answer.

At last she said slowly, "Oh, it's too late, Paul--too late!"

"Too late?" he echoed. "It's never too late to take the good the gods
send! Never, while love lasts!"

"But the Count, Paul--and your fiancee! Think, Paul, think!"

"I can't think! What does the Count matter, Opal! Nothing--nothing makes
any difference when you are face to face with destiny and your soul-mate
calls! It has to be--_it has to be!_--can't you--won't you--see it?"

"_God help all poor souls lost in the dark!_" She did see it. It stared
her relentlessly in the face and tugged mercilessly at her heart with
fingers of red-hot steel! She covered her face with her hands, but she
could not shut out the terrible image of advancing Death that held for
her all the charm of a serpent's eye. She struggled, as virgin woman has
always struggled. But in her heart she knew that she would yield. What
was her weak woman's nature after all, when pitted against the strength
of the man she loved!

"Oh, I was feeling so pure--so good--so true--to-night! Are there not
thousands of beautiful women in the world who might be yours for the
asking? Could you not let the poor Count have his wife and his honeymoon
in peace?"

Honeymoon! She shuddered at the thought.

"Sweetheart," he whispered, "by every God-made law of Nature you are
mine--mine--mine! What care we for the foolish, man-made conventions of
this or any other land? There is only one law in the universe--the
divine right of the individual to choose for himself his mate!"

Then his whisper became softer--more enticing--more resistless in its
passionate appeal.

He was pleading with his whole soul--this prince who with one word could
command the unquestioning obedience of a kingdom! But the woman in his
arms did not know that, and it would have made no difference if she had!
In that supreme moment it was only man and woman.

Opal gazed in amazement at this revelation of a new Paul. How splendid
he was! What a king among all the men she knew! What a god in his
manhood's glory!--a god to make the hearts of better and wiser women
than she ache--and break--with