dismissal should fall from her trembling lips.

"I must see you again," he begged. "I leave all to you, and I swear
to obey you in all things."

The beautiful woman bowed her head in her hands.

"See how I trust you," she brightly said, meeting his glance frankly
at last. "Be at the arch in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, next Sunday
at two.

"If you have a closed carriage we can drive an hour in the park.
If we must say farewell, we can say it then. For even when I met
you first, in that crowded street, I felt that in some strange
freemasonry of Life, we were to be friends."

A single frightened, warning gesture recalled him to his senses,
as Irma pointed to her nodding companion. "You do not know how
jealous artists are.

"One single imprudence would be my professional ruin; my career
would be blasted. Trust to me! Obey me; swear that you will not
follow me, and we shall meet again, for I would not lose you from
my life." He took the roses from her bosom and kissed them.

"Go, now," she whispered, "but only that we may meet again! I have
your promise."

"Loyal to the death," swore Clayton, as he kissed her trembling
hands and then stole away, leaving her there alone with pallid lips