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 Netley, he would be away from all the rest, away from all the world, together with her and there would be no help for it. He would meet her out here in their realm of sky and stars; no one else would be about; no one would watch them; no clock could call them at the end of an hour.

He was gloriously, recklessly exultant. He felt no fear at all. He was strong and young; she was, too. They had not thought of the cold that morning; they would not now, when it was not nearly so cold though it was night.

There was little danger from the lake; for the floe was firm and thick. It might break up somewhat; probably it would, but great fields, acres in extent, would hold together. There was too much ice upon the water to allow the wind to whip up a sea; and that smooth ice offered such small edge to the wind that it would drift out but slowly.

Dave saw Fidelia vaguely in the dusk. He was skating straight toward her. There she was! He had known she was in this direction before he could see her; throughout the afternoon he had kept himself aware of her presence on this side or on that, though he had never skated with her. So he had been sure, just now, that she was in the dusk toward the north.

She had seen him and was coming to meet him. She was skating rapidly but without panic. "She's not afraid!" he said. She seemed so little alarmed, indeed, that he wondered whether she knew the ice was drifting. He called to her: "Hello!"

"Why!" she exclaimed. "Why!"

He reached her and, with one of those swoops which