THE DRAGON VOLANT.
155
masked and robed so that my own brother could not have known me!
"You said I loved some one. Am I loved in return?" I asked.
"Try."
I was speaking lower than before, and stood near the dark man with the beard, to prevent the necessity of his speaking in a loud key.
"Does any one love me?" I repeated.
"Secretly," was the answer.
"Much or little?" I inquired.
"Too well."
"How long will that love last?"
"Till the rose casts its leaves."
"The rose—another allusion!"
"Then—darkness!" I sighed. "But till then I live in light."
"The light of violet eyes,"
Love, if not a religion, as the oracle had just pronounced it, is, at least, a supersti-
