they were all words that beckon without replying.

And all the time it was curiously as if the Something Silent within St.George himself, that so long had striven to speak, were crying out at last in the prince's words--and he could not understand.

Yet in spite of it all, in spite of this imminent satisfying of the strange, dreadful curiosity which possesses all mankind, St.George, even now, was far less keen to comprehend than he was to burst through the throng with Olivia in his arms, gain the waiting _Aloha_ and sail into the New York harbour with the prize that he had won.

"I drink now to those among you and among all men who have won and kept that which is greater than these," the prince had said, and St.George perfectly understood.

He had but to look at Olivia to be triumphantly willing that the gods should keep their secrets about time and the link between the two worlds so long as they had given him love.