The San Francisco call., 1905-05-07

there alone-the priest gone-the DUSK
fallen TO night. She had succeeded!
Gordon had come-his arms held her!
In the joyful revuision she turned
her face 10 him and threw her arms
about his neck. feeling herself caught
up in his embrace. every fiber shud- :
dering with the terror passed, weep
ing with weak delight, ciinglng to him
as to her refuge, still dizzy and faint
but with safe assurance and peace.
Looking down at her where she
rested her face buried on his breast,
her whole form shaken with feeling,
murmuring broken words, slowly call
ing back her strength. Gordon felt
doubt and indecision drop from his
mind. The convent was not for her
not by all she had suffered that day!
Only one thing else remained to take
her away forever, beyond the papal
frontier-with him. Fate and the
world had given her to him now by
the resistless logic of circumstance.
He reckoned swiftly.
The news by this time had reached
the casa in Ravenna. Another half
taken from their hands. They must
lose no time. Yet WHITTIER Where
could he go, that hatred would not
pursue? TO what Ultima Thule could
he fly, that the poison barb would not
follow to wound her happiness?
the East-in Greece, perhaps, the
land of his youthful dreams? 1t was
a barbarian pashawlik under the foot
of Ottoman greed; neither a fit nor Sc
cure habitation. In Italy, where her
soul must always be? Tuscany-Pisa.
where Shelley lived-was not far dis
tant. They might reach its borders in
safety There they would be beyond
the rule of Romagna, out of the states
of the church.
Dearest" asked Gordon, ''are you
strong enough to ride?"
She stirred instantly in his arms
and stood up, though unsteadily. Yes,
yes, some one will come. We must
go quickly.
Il will saddle and fetch a horse for
you to the chapel door"
She was feeling the sharp edge OF
presently" she assured him. Let us
wait no longer
He went noislessly to the stables
He had dreaded meeting some one,
but old Elsie, beside herself with
grief, had run to watch for those who
should come from Ravenna and the
rest of the servants, dazed by the ca
lamity, were huddled in the kitchen.
Leading the horse, Gordon returned
speedily.
He put his arms about Teresa in the
chapel doorway for an instant anu
held her close. He was feeling d call
he had never felt before the call that
nature and civilization have planted
in man deep as the desire for Off
spring, the song of the silver-singing
goddess, whose marble image, on the
night he had made that fatal trothlng
with Annabel, had been blackened by
his thrown inkwell-Vesta, the per-
sonification of the hearthstone, OF
homo.
Teresa suddenly mt that to himi
Homei Not such a one as he had
known at Newstead Abbey, with Hob
house and Sheridan and Moore. MOI
a gray moated pile wound with the
tragic fates of his own blood--a house
Of mirth, hut not of happiness. Not
like the one in Piccacilly Terrace,
where he had lived with Annabel that
one year Of fever and heartsickness
and fading idealsi No, but a home
that should be no part of his past;
nook enisled, where spying eyes might
not enter here e should redeem those
barren pledges he had once made to
life. in the coin Of real love.
Teresa" he said from the journey
we begin this hour there can be no re-
turn. 1t is out of the world you have
lived in and knowni If there were any
other way for you-save that one
My life" she whispered.
The soft-voiced passion of her tender
ness thrilled him. You go to exile"
he went on, ito an alien place
There is no exile, except from you.
nor alien place where you are! The
world that disowns you may cast me
out-ah, L shall be glad,"
He laughed a low laugh of utter con-
tent Lightly as if she had been a
child, he lifted her into the saddle
Supporting her at first, he led the horse
over the turf and into the driveway
where his own waited.
Then mounting. his hand holding her
bride. they rode into the velvety dark.
Old Elise, tearfully watching the Ra-
VIENNA road, heard horses coming from
the villa grounds. From the seIvedge
OF the hedge. she saw the faces OF
Teresa and Gordon. pallid in the star
light
The old woman's breath failed her.
All the servants tales of the English
nan. whom she had seen at the casa,
required to ler superstitious imagina-
ton. He vas a ,fiend. carrying off the
dead body of her mistress.
She crouched against the ground,
palsied with fright. till the mufiled
hoof-beats died away. Then she rose
and ran, stumbling with fear, to the
house
AS Gordon and Teresa rode through
the azure gloom of the Italian night, a
girlish moon was fitting over the dis
tant purple of the mountains, beyond
whose many folded Businesses lay Tus5
cany and Pisa. Her weakness had
passed and she kept her saddle more
certainly The darkness was friendly,
before the sun rose they would be be-
yond pursuit
As the villa slipped behind them and
the odorous forest shut them round,
Gordon rode closer and clasped her in
his arms with rush of joy, straining
her tight to him, feeling the fervid
beating Of her heart, his own exuiting
with the fierce, primordial flame of pos
session
.Mine." he cried. MY very own at
lasl-now and always"
CHAPTER XLVIH.