" repeated Brooke, and he gave that short laugh of his.
"Oh yes--I'll come, of course, and I'll leave my card; and perhaps
you'll be 'not at home,' or perhaps I'll be asked to call again, or
perhaps--"

Talbot smiled, and Brooke, catching her eye, smiled also, and stopped
abruptly.

Then followed another silence, which, however, unlike most of such
periods, was not at all embarrassing.

"Have you noticed," said Talbot, at length, "that they have left the
same small guard which they left before?"

"Oh yes; but what of that?"

"Don't you think that now, after what has happened, they might be far
less strict, and be open to a moderate bribe?"

"Bribe? And why?" asked Brooke.

"Why? why?" repeated Talbot, in surprise. "Why, to escape--to get our
freedom."

"But suppose I don't want my freedom?" said Brooke.

"Not want it? What do you mean? Do you suppose that I may not be
strong enough for the journey? Don't be afraid of that. I feel strong
enough now for any effort. I'll fly with you--anywhere, Brooke."

"Fly?" said Brooke; "fly? What, and take you to your friends? And
then what? Why, then--a long good-bye! Talbot, I'm too infernally
selfish. I'll tell you a secret. Now that the worst is over--now that
there doesn't seem to be any real danger--I'll confess that I enjoy
this. I don't want it to end. I feel not only like singing, but like
dancing. I want to be always living in a tower, or an old windmill,
or anywhere--so long as I can look up and see you, I don't want
anything more in the world. And when I look up and see Talbot no
more--why, then I'll stop singing. For what will life be worth then,
when all its sunlight, and bloom, and sweetness, and joy are over,
and when they are all past and gone forever? Life! why, Talbot, lad, I
never began to know what life could be till I saw you; and do you
ask me now to put an end to our friendship?"

This was what Brooke said, and then he turned off into a song:

"Then this maiden wiped her eyelids
With her pocket-handkerchee;
Though I grow a yaller spinster
I will stick to my Billee!
Rite follalol-lol-lol-lol-lido,
Rite follalol-lol-lol-lol-lay."

After this there followed another prolonged silence. Talbot was now
the first to speak.

"Brooke," said she, in her low, soft, tremulous voice, which had died
down almost to a whisper, "we know the secrets of one another's
hearts. Oh, Brooke! Brooke! why have we never met before? Oh,