noble forehead, sweet mouth, and rounded chin. It touched the
scarlet of her bodice, and brightened the quaint old silver clasps
she wore at her waist and throat, till she seemed no longer an
earthly being, but more like some fair wondering sprite from the
legendary Norse kingdom of Alfheim, the "abode of the Luminous
Genii."

She was gazing upwards,--heavenwards,--and her expression was one of
rapt and almost devotional intensity. Thus she remained for some
moments, motionless as the picture of an expectant angel painted by
Raffaele or Correggio; then reluctantly and with a deep sigh she
turned her eyes towards earth again. In so doing she met the fixed
and too visibly admiring gaze of her companion. She started, and a
wave of vivid color flushed her cheeks. Quickly recovering her
serenity, however, she saluted him slightly, and, moving her oars in
unison, was on the point of departure.

Stirred by an impulse he could not resist, he laid one hand
detainingly on the rim of her boat.

"Are you going now?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows in some little surprise and smiled.

"Going?" she repeated. "Why, yes. I shall be late in getting home as
it is."

"Stop a moment," he said eagerly, feeling that he could not let this
beautiful creature leave him as utterly as a midsummer night's dream
without some clue as to her origin and destination. "Will you not