and unconsciously as
life itself--that, when discovered, changes existence by a sudden
kaleidoscopic turn, compelling all within and without to pass at once
into new arrangement and combination--that inspires heroic, patient
effort, self-denial, and even self-sacrifice.

She had prepared herself for this opportunity by years of training and
thought, but his presence brought her an inspiration beyond all
that she had gained from books or study. He was the magician who
unconsciously had the power to waken and kindle her whole nature, to
set the blood flowing in her veins like wine, and to arouse a rapidity
and versatility of thought that was surprising even to herself. With
the pure genius of love she threw about his mind gossamer threads,
drew the filaments together, and held them in her heart. The pulses
of life grew stronger within him, his fancy kindled, the lore of books
long since forgotten, as he supposed, flashed into memory, and out
into happy allusion and suggestion. Still his wonder increased that
her knowledge coincided so fully with his own, and that their lines
of reading had been so closely parallel. It was hard for him to find
a terra incognita of thought into which she had not made some slight
explorations. In his own natural domains she skilfully appeared to
know enough to follow, but not to lead with mortifying superiority.
She also had her own preserves of thought and fancy, of which she gave
him tantalizing glimpses, then let fall the screening boughs; and he,
who fain would see more, was content to pass on, assured that another
vista would soon be revealed. It was the reserve of this frank girl
that most charmed and incited him, the feeling, more or less defined,
that while she appeared to manifest herself by every word and smile,
something richer and rarer still was hidden.

"No one will ever have a chance to understand her fully but the man
she loves," he thought. "To him she would give the clew to all her
treasures, or else show them with sweet abandon, and it would require
a lifetime for the task. She has a beauty and a character that would
never pall, for the reason that she draws her life so directly from
nature. I have never met a woman that affected me as she does."

He sighed again. In spite of the loyalty to which he believed himself
fully committed, Stella Wildmere, with her Wall Street complications,
her variegated experience as to adorers, and her present questionable
diplomacy, seem