The keel grated, and Ellery sprang ashore and held out his arms to help
her.
"Madeline," he said, sternly holding her at arm's length, "this spot is
so evidently created for a lovers' bower, that I suspect you of having
had your eye on it for a long time. How did you come to direct me
here?"
"Instinct," she laughed. "That wonderful instinct of woman."
"Shall we stay here for ever and let the world wag?"
"And live on locusts and wild honey?" she asked.
"Yes, if you will be my wild honey. I'm going to begin to devour you
right away." And he caught her at last.
"Who gave you permission?" she whispered with cheek close to his.
"Who? Haven't you heard the universe shouting aloud? The sky, and the
sun and the lake and the woods. They've been crying 'Mine! Mine! Mine!'
for the last ten minutes. You'll never contradict them, sweetheart?"
"Never," said she.
For a long moment they looked into each other's eyes, and she read in
his that mastery without tyranny which for some inexplicable reason sets
a woman's heart beating with unimagined bliss.
Ten minutes later, or so it seemed, Madeline pulled his watch from his
pocket and started in dismay.
"Ellery," she cried, "do you know that we have been sitting here for
four hours? What will Mrs. Lenox and all the others think?"
"Who cares what they think? Let them think the truth, if their
imaginations can soar to that height."
"We must hurry back."
"Don't you think it is a little brutal to invite a man to leave Heaven
and go back to earth?"
"Perhaps we need a dose of the world. Medicine is good for one."
"Not unless he is ill; and I was never well till now."
"Come, Ellery, we really must go," she said with severity.
"Well, there's lunch," he meditated. "I confess that I can view the
prospect of luncheon with something like equanimity. There are certain
advantages about the world, Madeline."
It was long after the driving party had returned when Miss Elton and Mr.
Norris strolled up the path from the boat-house, quite indifferent to
the fact of their lateness. Dick on the piazza watched their coming and
needed no handwriting on the wall. The girl glowed and Ellery reflected
her light.
"It would be a perfect woman who should unite her spirit with Lena's
soul-delighting body," Percival said to himself. "And Ellery chooses
the spirit, and I, God help me, love and choose the body. But I can not
bear to meet them."
He was turning to slip away when he met his wife face to face, and
stopped half in curiosity to see what she would notice and hear what she
would say. Lena, too, gazed at the oblivious advancing pair.