I plucked the fruit while all the rest were just looking at it.
Stella--mine! Stella--mine!" His lips pressed hers between the words closely, possessively, and again involuntarily she shivered.

She could not return his caresses that night.
His hold relaxed at last.

"How cold you are, my Star of the North!" he said.

"What is it?
Surely you are not nervous at the thought of to-morrow after your triumph to-night! You will carry all before you, never fear!" She answered him in a voice so flat and emotionless that it sounded foreign even to herself.

"Oh, no, I am not nervous.