"you are--splendid!"

Words and action were alike wholly spontaneous. They were also wholly
unexpected. She saw a strange look flash across his face. Just for a
second he hesitated. Then he took her hands and held them fast.

"Ah--Stella!" he said.

With the name his eyes kindled. His weariness vanished as darkness
vanishes before the glare of electricity. He drew her suddenly and
swiftly to him.

For a few throbbing seconds Stella was so utterly amazed that she made
no resistance. He astounded her at every turn, this man. And yet in some
strange and vital fashion her moods responded to his. He was not beyond
comprehension or even sympathy. But as she found his dark face close to
hers and felt his eyes scorch her like a flame, expediency rather than
dismay urged her to action. There was something so sublimely natural
about him at that moment that she could not feel afraid.

She drew back from him gasping. "Oh please--please!" she said. "Captain
Monck, let me go!"

He held her still, though he drew her no closer. "Must I?" he said. And
in a lower voice, "Have you forgotten how once in this very room you
told me--that I had come to you--too late? And--now!"

The last words seemed to vibrate through and through her. She quivered
from head to foot. She could not meet the passion in his eyes, but
desperately she strove to cope with it ere it mounted beyond her