in your eyes after you learn to know
it. You have no idea how much it means to me."

"Herr Rojanow--I----" She was about to utter a refusal, but he
interrupted her, and continued in low, but passionate, tones:

"What is a single flower to you, broken carelessly, and which you will
allow to fade as carelessly? But to me leave me this token, gracious
lady; I--I beg for it."

He stood close beside her. The charm which he, as a boy, had
unconsciously exerted when he made people "defenseless" with his
coaxing, he, as a man, recognized as a power which never failed, and
which he knew how to use. His voice bore again that soft, suppressed
tone which charmed the ear like music; and his eyes--those dark,
mysterious eyes--were fixed upon the girl before him with a half
gloomy, half beseeching expression.

The paleness of her face had deepened, but she did not answer.

"I beg of you," he repeated, more lowly, more beseechingly, as he
pressed the glowing flower to his lips; but the very gesture broke the
spell. Adelaide suddenly drew herself up.

"I must