Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: images of richest colour before her. The mysteries of ages ran in her veins. She could have clung to him convulsively in a wild, wild ecstasy of fierce joy, save that some memory of an elder self, a self that had not known this wild riot of uncontrollable desire surging in her, forbade so abandoned an evidence of her emotion. It was, therefore, to relieve a mood that bade fair to whelm and conquer all control, that she let droop her arm, so relinquishing possession of his. He construed this as apathy on her part, and felt puzzled at the ways of woman, not knowing how to construe this in the light of her undeniable emotion of but a few moments back. "May I not take your arm?" he asked, looking down at the rich hues tinting the pure profile of her face. "If you like," she whispered, inconsequentially, as it seemed to him. "You wish me to?" he asked, with a slight feeling of mastery. "Yes," she whispered back, softlier than before. Emboldened by this, instead of taking her arm, he slipped his arm gently about her waist, and she surrendered herself to him. He held her close to him as they stumbled rather than walked forward. Presently he stopped, and, folding her in his arms, stooping slightly, kissed her averted face. She shrank away convulsively. The touch of lips was purest joy to him, but it well-nigh maddened her. She trembled in his arms. He knew not why she trembled, but as she had not forbidden him, he kissed her again, more passionately. Then with a quick motion she swung on him, and, throwing her arms about his neck, kissed him wildly and convulsively. Neither spoke. Evening was turned almost to twilight ere they separated. The air was warm and rich. In the west, through the aurora thrown up by the departing sun, Venus struggled through with light ray of...