For the first time in her memory he avoided her look.  “No,” he said.

“What then?” Her voice was suddenly very soft and infinitely appealing.

He opened his arms with a gesture of renunciation “It is—­beyond words,” he said.

She leaned nearer.  Her hands slipped upwards, clasping his neck.

“It is the greatest thing that has ever come to me,” she said, and in her voice there throbbed a new note which he had never heard in it before.  “Do you think—­oh, do you think—­I would cast—­that—­away?”

He did not speak in answer.  It seemed as if he could not.  That which lay between them was indeed beyond words.  Only in the silence he took her again into his arms and kissed her on the lips.

* * * * *

By Ethel M. Dell

The Way of an Eagle
The Knave of Diamonds
The Rocks of Valpre
The Swindler
The Keeper of the Door
Bars of Iron
The Hundredth Chance
The Safety Curtain
Greatheart
The Lamp in the Desert
The Tidal Wave
The Top of the World
Rosa Mundi and Other Stories
The Obstacle Race
The Odds and Other Stories
Charles Rex
Tetherstones