Lgirl." The velvet night was attuned to the rhythm of her love. She felt herself, in this sea of moon romance, being swept from her moorings. Star-eyed, she gazed at him while she still fought again his dominance. "You ARE uncivilized. Would you beat me when I didn't obey?" she asked tremulously. He laughed in slow contentment. "Perhaps; but I'd love you while I did it." "Oh, you would love me." She looked across under her long lashes, not as boldly as she would have liked, and her gaze fell before his. "I haven t heard before that that was in the compact you proposed. I don't think you have remembered to mention it." He swung from the saddle and put a hand to her bridle rein. "Get down," he ordered. "Why?" "Because I say so. Get down." She looked down at him, a man out of a thousand and for her one out of a hundred million. Before she was conscious of willing it she stood beside him. He trailed the reins of the ponies, and in two strides came back to her. "What--do you--want?" "I want you, girl." His arm swept round her, and he held her while he looked down into her shining eyes. "So I haven't told you that I love you. Did you need to be told?" "We must go on," she murmured weakly. "Frances and Lieutenant O'Connor--" "--Have their own love-affairs to attend to. "We'll manage ours and not intrude." "They might think--" He laughed in deep delight, "--that we love each other. They're welcome to the thought. I haven't told you that I love you, eh? I tell you now. It's my last trump, and right here I table it. I'm no desert poet, but I love you from that dark crown of yours to those little feet that tap the floor so impatient sometimes. I love you all the time, no matter what mood you're in--when you flash dark angry eyes at me and when you laugh in that slow, understanding way nobody else in God's world has the trick of. Makes no difference to me whether you're glad or mad, I want you just the same. That's the reason why I'm going to make you love me." "You can't do it." Her voice was very low and not quite steady. "
