still retained from the last position of the dance. "I love you,
Tara of Helium," he repeated. "Why should your ears refuse to
hear what your eyes but just now did not refuse to see--and
answer?"

"What meanest thou?" she cried. "Are the men of Gathol such
boors, then?"

"They are neither boors nor fools," he replied, quietly. "They
know when they love a woman--and when she loves them."

Tara of Helium stamped her little foot in anger. "Go!" she said,
"before it is necessary to acquaint my father with the dishonor
of his guest."

She turned and walked away. "Wait!" cried the man. "Just another
word."

"Of apology?" she asked.

"Of prophecy," he said.

"I do not care to hear it," replied Tara of Helium, and left
him standing there. She was strangely unstrung and shortly
thereafter returned to her own quarter of the palace, where she
stood for a long time by a window looking out beyond the scarlet
tower of Greater Helium toward the northwest.

Presently she turned angrily away. "I hate him!" she exclaimed
aloud.