Jewel Weed

"Madeline!" he cried, suddenly leaning forward and catching her hands.

"I must tell you! You must know, and I must know!"

With the grasp of his fingers, the first physical touch of love, an

electric pang seemed to leap through the girl's body; and in the flash

were shown to her new heights and depths in herself, and a thousand dim

things in the future. She felt, in the man, the revelation of that

mystery by which the body's passion slips into passion of the soul--that

soul-love, which by its very nature can never know lassitude nor

revulsion. And what was actual in him, grew radiant with possibility in

herself.

She looked up to meet his eager face and his eyes like lamps. "No, no!"

she cried. "Don't tell me."

"But do you know without telling?"

"I must think."

"But surely you must have read it long ago."

"I only glanced at it. I never looked it in the face."

"Don't examine it too closely now, or I'm afraid you will find it a poor

thing," he said whimsically. "Take it on impulse, Madeline."

But she waved him away with her hand, turning her face to one side, and

leaned back in her cushions, while Ellery waited, hardly breathing.

There was a deep hush on the opal waters under the April morning sky,

and no sound but the far-off note of a wood-thrush.

"Madeline!" he cried at last. "Be merciful, and speak to me."

She gathered her self-possession and turned to face him with smiles and

dimples, and one swift look full in the face.

"Mr. Norris," she said airily, and then laughed as his face fell at the

title, "we are in the middle of a big sheet of water, and I do not want

you to upset the boat; we are visible from many miles of shore, and the

world and his wife are driving and motoring on this most beautiful of

days; but over on our right there is a lovely little beach, and a clump

of willows that have forced the season a bit. Perhaps, if we went there,

I might listen to what you have to say."

"Oh, Madeline, my Madeline," he said, "I can never tell you because the

words are not made that will hold it, and it will take a lifetime to

tell it all. But, if you are willing, we will make a beginning over

there by the dipping willows." He shot a stormy glance at her as he

caught the oars, and she met it bravely. "Please don't trail your

fingers in the water," he said. "You are delaying the progress of the

boat."

"Heaven forbid delay!" she cried in mock horror, and showered him with

the drops from her lifted hand.