The Secret Power

a sleigh-bell on a frosty n

ou run awa

at once, an

I was tir

onbeams she was woman to the core, and the disdainful movement of her sm

I should find you! What are you

in my line as yours. I have to

you've chosen a good place to do your shamming in. It's quite

id, sarcastically-"How many servants?

ughed

yours!" she replied-

e pity!" h

inous rain of silver over all the visible breadth of wild country, and their

lared, stretching her arms out with an enthusiastic gestur

as s

-"You are a bear-man in hiding, a

out heart,-a mere shell of extinct volcanoes where fire once burned, and its light is but

graceful that the action resembled nothing s

of chivalry!" she said-"I see y

uld be mad! When will you learn the truth of me?-that women are less in my estimation than the insects crawling on a blade of grass or spawning in a

he suggested

omplete and un

h worse to be a bore than to be hated. Hate is quite a live sentiment,-besides it always means, or HAS meant-love! You can't hate anything that is quite indifferent

at his feet, its white garments gathering about it as though they were se

just as the trees and flowers are here-to breed other trees and flowers and then go out of it-for no purpose, apparently. They are 'disillusioned.' They say 'what's the use?' To put up with so much trouble and labour for the folks coming after us whom we shall never see,-it seems perfectly foolish and futile

cold silence.

u done?"

e moonbeams set tiny fro

to talk to a man in his shirt-sleeves on a hill in California by the light of the moon! So wild and p

dine," he

t you eat and

Bread and milk are enough

and clappe

y! It's too delicious! And you're doing all thi

over her reclining figure

shly-"Don't lie there

p as he pulled her to her feet-t

uscle!" she

and gripped them fiercel

orget my ring

at her small fingers on which two or three sup

hem! How they sparkle in this wide moonlight, don't they? Just a drifting of nature's refuse matter, turned into jewels f

ike a spoilt child, and rubbing one fi

of importance-but you are nothing,-less than nothing to me, I never give you a thought-I have come here to study-to escape from the crazy noise of modern li

to be revolutionised? We are all very well as we are

ressively. Then she pushed back her flowing hair,-the moonbeams

me here for?" he

m 'on the war-path' as they say, taking scalps as I go. This

ankrupt noblema

laug

hich I could annihilate you-so!" and she made a round O of her curved fingers and blew through it-"One breath!-from a distance, too! and hey presto!-the bear-man on th

alone!" he said, angrily-"Wome

y they never mention Madame Curie without the poor Monsieur! SHE

n impatie

it's nearly ten o'clock at night?-I suppose

e visitors' windows and it would be called 'charming' because I am rich! I can appear at the table d'hote in a bath-wrap and eat peas with a hair-pin if I like-and my conduct will be admired, because I am rich! When I go to Europe my photo will be in all the London pictorials with the grinning

enquired, s

,"-here she paused, and with a sudden feline swiftness of movement came close up to him-"I would have married YOU!-if you would have had me! I would have given you all my money to play with,-you could have got everything you want for your inventio

white teeth between his dark moustache and beard gave

ls itself a man is made of! I did my very best with you, didn't I?-uncouth as you always were and are!-bu

press-camera type, but radiant with such a light of daring intelligence as to make beauty itself seem cheap and meretrici

her hands and uplifted them in an attitude of prayer-"Why wouldn't he? Oh, big moon of Calif

a glance of

e been on the s

t Like It!' Poor Shakespeare!-he never imagined such characters as we are! Now, suppose you had satisfied the expectations of all Washington City and married me

it!" he repeate

he went on-"Love is too much of

uld be worse than any imaginable torture!-to be 'loved

iss you!" she exclaimed-"Never! THAT

ark in the dawn. He stared at her angrily, moved by an insensate des

uite a nice little mouth-soft and rosy! I shouldn't like to spoil it by scratching it against yours! It's curious how all m

he ejaculat

he continued, airily-"I shal

again!" he

. Besides, I have work to do!-wonderful work! and I don't believe in doin

ement by a quick,

e you go I want you to

essary?" s

ever trying to see me again, which will be a relief to me

can look at nothing with your eye

ad

laughing "Oh!" and pu

he exclaimed; "It sounds as if I w

yes had no s

uch wealth and independence as you possess can hardly be

ark sky where the moon hung

e old English word was 'Mistress.' S

mine, where a

ar! your true

ce, full of youth and tenderness. With one quick strid

ut of you!" he said, fiercely-"I

, careless

ouldn't kill me if you

f I could!" he mu

added to the general world of murderers!

eld her in

are utterly useless,-mere waste on the wind! To idealise them is a stupid mistake. To think that they can do anything original, intellectual or imaginative is to set one's self down an idiot. YOU,-you the spoilt only child of one of the biggest rascal financiers in New York,-YOU, left alone in the world with a fortune so vast as to be almost criminal-you think you are something

she drew her white draperies round her shoulders wi

of the situation-you in your shirt-sleeves on a hill in California, and I in silken stuff and diamonds paying you a moonlight visit-it's really quite novel and charming!-but it can't go on for ever! Just now you said you wanted me to know a thing or two, and I presume you have explained yourself. What you think or what you don't think about women doesn't interest me. I'm one

What NOW?"

ds. Her face in the moonbeams looked

ered-"The Change when all

her words,-a strang

hushed to an extreme soft

ight!-g

id further leave-taking-then, on

rga

name sounding like "Mor-ga-ar-na" as a shivering note on the G string of a violin may sound at