Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/213

 touched the curling mass of her hair, as he cried in agony:

"God help me—I'm lost!"

She revived as quickly as she had collapsed and murmured:

"I was about to faint—quick, let's get out!"

He led her through the iron grilled door into the moonlit shadows of the lawn.

"Oh!" she cried with a gasp of relief. "What a wild experience! I hope I didn't do anything very silly—did I?" she asked dreamily.

"You did just what any little girl of your age might do under such conditions," he replied, gazing at her with deep seriousness. "Come, let us find a seat on the lawn and I'll tell you the story of the vault and the secret way."

He led her to the seat on which he had sunk in despair the night he came half-mad with pain to watch the masqueraders whirl past her lighted windows.

The full moon wrapped the earth in the white mantle of Southern midsummer glory, and the night wind stirred, its breath laden with the rich perfume of every flower in full bloom. A katydid was singing a plaintive song in the tree above, and in the rose bushes near the porch a mocking-bird rehearsed in a burst of mad joy every love song of the feathered world.