with his kiss--that first kiss--how
well she remembered it--and how utterly she belonged to him!

Then she remembered that, however much they tried to deceive themselves,
there was a to-morrow--a to-morrow that would surely come--a to-morrow
in which they would not belong to each other at all. He would belong to
the world. She would belong to a--

She sprang up at the recollection, and drew the curtains of the window
closer together.

"We will shut out the cold, inquisitive, prying old world," she said.
"It shall not look, shall not listen! It is a hard, cruel world, my
Paul. It would say that I must not put my arms around your neck--like
this--must not lay my cheek against yours--so--must not let my heart
feel the wild throbbing of yours--and why? Because I do not wear your
ring, Paul--that's all!"

She held up her white hand for his inspection, and surveyed it
critically.

"See, Paul--there is no glittering, golden fetter to hold me to you with
the power of an iron band, and so I must not--let you hold me to you at
all"

They both laughed merrily, and then Paul, pulling her down on his knee
and holding her face against his own, whispered, "What care we for the
old world? It is as sad and mad and bad as we are--if we only knew! And
who knows how much worse? It has petty bickerings, damning lies of spite
and malice, trickery and thievery and corruption on its conscience. Let
the little people of the world prate of their little things! We are
free, dearest--and we defy it, don't we? Our ideals are never lost. And
ideals are the life of love. Is love--a love like ours--a murderer of
life?"

"Sometimes, Paul--sometimes! I fear it--I do fear it!"

"Never fear, Opal, my beloved! You need not fear anything--anywhere! I
will stand between you and the world, dear--between you and hell itself!
My God, girl, how I love you! Opal! My Opal! My heart aches with the
immensity of it! Come, my love, my queen, my treasure, come! We have not
many more hours to--live! And I want you close, close--all mine! Ah,
Opal, we are masters of life and death! All earth, all heaven, and--hell
itself, cannot take you from me now!"

Oh, if scone moments in life could only be eternal!

CHAPTER XXVII

And the day--died!

The sun sank beneath the western horizon; the moon cast her silvery
sheen over the weary world; the twinkling stars appeared in the jewelled
diadem of night; and the silence of evening settled over mountain and