Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-03-03

looked pale Her unresisting fingers
still lay in his; he felt their touch like
a breath of fire through all his veins.
Her eyes sparkled back the eery witch
glow of the candle-fames. You are a
green-golden gnome-girl!' he said I'M
steadily "And I am under the SPELL"
yes, yes she said. 1T am Rumpty-
budgets daughteri 1 have only to wave
my candlestick-so!-to turn you into
q stalagmite"
She suited the action to the word
and dropped her candle. which was IN
stantly extinguished on the damp floor.
Bending forward to retrieve IT. Daunt
slipped. The arm he instinctively threw
out to save himself struck the wall and
his own candle flew from fits socket. AS
he regained his footing, confused by the
blank enfolding darkness, he stumbled
against Barbara, have his face brushed
hers. In another instant the touch had
thrilled into kiss.
A moment she lay in his arms, pass
i've, painting, her unkissed mouth sting
ing with the burn Of his lips. The world
was a dense blackness, shot with fire
and full of pealing bells, and the beating
of her heart was a great wave OF sound
that throbbed like the iron-shod fury OF
the seas.
IT love you. Barbara" he said simply.
at love your
The stammering utterance pierced the
swift, confused sweetness of that first
kiss like a lance Of desperate gladness
Through the tumbling passion of the
words he poured into her heart, she
could feel his hands touching her face
her throat, her loosened hair.
Barbara Listen, dear! I must say IL
It's stronger than I ammo. don't push
r - rof Love
met
With her arms on his breast. she had
made a movement to release herself.
eve are mad, 1 thinkr' she breathed.
Then may we never be sane!"
"I-you have known me only two
days! What"
''Ah. no! I've known you all these
years and have been loving you without
really knowing it, 1 made a woman out
of my own fancy, that 1 dreamed alive.
In the long winter evenings when
worked at my models in the little house
in Aoyama, l used to see her face in my
driftwood blaze and talk to her.
called her my Lady of the Man-Col-
ored Fires 1 never thought she really
existed, but that first night in the en-
bassy garden 1 knew that my dream
woman was you.-you, Barbara!
I Her hands pushed him from her no
more. They fell to trembling on his
breast In the dense, salty obscurity,
she turned her head sharply, to feel
again his lips on hers, her own molding
to his kiss. She dropped, swaying,
stunned. breathless.
Barbara, I love your
''No-not again. Light-the candle"
Just a moment Ionger-here in the
dark with Ben-ten. It's fate, darlingl
Why should l have been in Japan and
not in Persia when you came? Why
did 1 happen to be there in the garden
that night, at that particular moment?
Why, it was the purest accident that I
came here today. No-not accident. 1t
was kismetl Barbara!
'dake-a light. I-beg you;''
His lips were murmuring against her
cheek. Say 7 love you.' tool"
lean not You You
would hold me cheap 1 would
bel am! What? Yes. It was
a tulip tree. 1 was sixteen oh.
you couldn'. have-why. you'd forgotten
the whole thingl You had, you hadi
Don't hold me. No, /
don't care what you think Yes.
1 do care. Yes, II This
is perfectly shameless! Dark !?
That makes it all the worse What will
you :. No, no! You must not kiss
me again! We must go back!-I will
go back. :"
She freed herself. and he fumbled for
his fallen candle. He struck match.
The sputtering blue flame lit her white.
dangerous face, her fallen hair, her
heaving breast. 1t went out. He struck
another and the wick blazed up.
Look at me. dear!' he said. Tell
me in the light. Will you marry me?"
II can not answer-now.'
Why? Don't you love me?'
lin so short a time. how could L?
l4e- us go now. 1 don't know myself
norNlor yOu!"
She was trembling. and he noted it
with a pang of conjunction.
Tomorrow, sweetheart? VIII you
give me my answer them"
'YesH 1t was almost inaudible
eat the foreign ministers ball tomor-
row night? I'll come to you there.
dearest r.
He stopped She had caught her hand
to her throat with wild gesture. Ben
ten! She-she is frowning at us. There
look therel''
MY poor darling." he said. You
are nervous See, it was only the shad-
ow. l ought not to have brought you
into this dismal holel You are positively
Let US hurry she said and they
light of the entrance.
The squall had passed with the fatefui
swiftness of its coming. The waves still
gurgled and tumbled, but the fury of the