t and bleeding feet over the roughness of the roads, as I
would help them over the perilous road of life. I have not touched thy
hand save in support; I have not touched the glory of thy mouth with my
mouth, because thou couldst not give me thy _consent_ so to do!

"Dost think it has been a child's task to keep my hands and my kisses
from thee? Behold, I had but to make a sign, and thou, in thy
unconsciousness, would have come unto my intent! Oh, thou bud of
innocent fragrance; thou fruit ready to the plucking of loving hands!
Aye, thou wert, thou art in my power; and even have I seen thee in----"

"Ah!" said Leonie sharply as her hand slid to her shoulder and the
words came through her closed teeth--"You _lie_!"

"Lie!"

"Yes, _lie_! You have not touched me you say; neither have you kissed
me, but _you_, and _only_ you, can tell me what the mark is on my
shoulder--a mark I shall carry to my grave."

The man threw back his turbaned head and was about to make reply, when,
with those shrill cries which betray great fear, a troop of monkeys
passed them, chattering as they ran swiftly on all fours, or swung even
more swiftly from tree to tree; and the native looked after them, and
up to the sky, and over his shoulder along the narrow path by which
they had come, showing black and white in the alternate lights and
shadowings of the moon.

"Answer me!" said Leonie more sharply than she knew, and with a woman's
superb indifference to any event or signs of approaching event outside
her own love orbit.

"Nay, answer thou me!" replied the man who, expert in the knowledge of
jungle signs, yet put aside all thought save of his love for the woman.
"Tell me that thou wilt be my wife and the mother of my sons, thou
beautiful woman! Tell me that thou wilt come unto me this night,
wedded to _me_, by yon old priest; and that, within the arms of Uma so
sweet, of Parvati who steppeth so lightly, I may set my seal upon thee.

"Lifting from thee, as I and the priest _only_ may lift, that which
thou callest the curse from about thee, bringing thee to happiness in
the shadow of the temple."

But something had happened to Leonie, bringing her to a pitch of
excitement foreign to her in her waking hours. She looked swiftly to
right and left, and over her shoulder, and up the narrow path they must
go to the temple; and up to the sky she could see faintly through the
trees, and into the eyes of the man watching her intently. Then s