The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-01-18

glow OF the CanQle names. GU are
green-golden gnome girl" he said I'M
steadily. "And l am under SPELL"
Eyes, yes" she said 81 am Rumpty-
budgets daughter! have only to wave
my candlestick-so!-to turn you into
ia stalagmite!"
She suited the action to the word
and dropped her candle, which was
instantly eXtinguished on the damp
floor. Bending forward to retrieve it
Daunt slipped. The arm he instinct
lively threw out to save himself struck
the wall and his own candle flew from
it's socket. AS he regained his foot
ing, confused by the blank, enfolding
darkness, he stumbled against Bar
bara and 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
singing 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.
81 love you, Barbara" he said simp-
ly. 81 love you!"
The stammering utterance pierced
the swift, confused sweetness OF that
first kiss like a lance of desperate
gladness. Through the tumbling pas
sion of the words he poured into her
heart, she could feel his hands touch
ing her face, her throat, her loosened
hair.
'Barbara! Listen, dear! | must say
it! It's stronger than l ammo, don't
push me away! Love me! You must
love mel"
With her arms on his breast she had
made a movement to release herself.
I'VE are mad, think" 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 with
out really knowing it. l made wo-
man out of my own fancy, that !
dreamed alive. In the long winter
evenings when l worked at my mod
els in the little house in Aoyama, |
used to see her face in my driftWOod
blaze and talk to her. l called her my
Lady of the Manufactured Fires !
never thought she really existed, but
that first night in the embassy garden
knew that my dream woman was
you!-you, Barbara!'
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 mold
ing to his kiss. She dropped, sway
ing, stunned, GREATNESS.
Barbara, | love you'll"
"No--not again. Light-the candle
Just moment longer-here in the
dark with Ben-ten. It's fate, darling!
Why should | have been in Japan and
not in Persia when you came? Why
did l happen to be there in the gar
den that night at that particular mo-
ment? Why, it was the purest acct
dent that came here today! No-not
accident. 1t was kismet! Barbara"
"Make-a light. beg you!"
His lips were murmuring against
her cheek. Say I love you too!"
'I-can not. You you
would hold me cheap | would
be- am! What? Yes, it was
a tulip tree. was sixteen. Oh,
you couldn't have-why, you'd forgot
ten the whole thing! You had, you
had! Don't hold me. :.
No, | don't care what you think! :.
Yes, l 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 a
match. The suffering 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. viii you marry me?'
Il cannot anSWer-nOW.'
"Why? Don't you love me-"
lin so short time, how could |?
Let us go now. | don't know myself
-nor-nor yOu!"