“julia!” came tay’s voice over the telephone. “we are in adjoining hotels! i never felt so truly wicked in my life! how do you feel?”

“cold. my stove won’t warm up.”

“mine looks like a polar bear on end. i expect it to open its jaws and devour me. wish it would if what you english chastely call its inside is warmer than its out. i’ve just had an exhilarating supper of cold ham, beer, and double-barrelled crusts, which appear to be a staple. i suppose you have had precisely the same, as this is germany and the hour 11.30 p.m.”

“yes, and i’m going to bed this minute and forget it. good night.”

“one minute. to-morrow morning?”

“hadn’t we better wait till the darks arrive?”

“not much! do you think i’m going to moon about a strange town by my lonesome? if we could travel together?—”

“there are so many english people in munich, and i am in the position of c?sar’s wife at present?—”

“don’t dare to mention the word—the fatal word. now, expect me to-morrow morning at nine-thirty. if you are not downstairs on the minute, i’ll send a procession of bell-boys up to your room until the hotel is ringing with the scandal.”

“very well. it would be rather stupid.”

“glad you see the point. by the way, what have you told the police you are? i longed to write anarchist and see what would happen. i compromised by writing, ‘proprietor of a free lunch counter and antigraft sausage factory.’?”

“you didn’t!”

“cross my heart.”

“i hope you’ll have a visit from the police first thing in the morning. i wrote ‘ward in chancery’; thought that rather funny.”

“best english joke i ever heard! well, go to bed, princess of the tower. mind you stay on it.”

lord dark had been detained at the last minute, and julia easily had been persuaded to go on alone with tay. both had made merry at first over the mock elopement; but the trains were crowded and cold, the wait at cologne was long and colder still, and both were unsentimentally relieved to arrive at their destination. here, at least, in the beautiful city of munich, they really could enjoy a day or two of complete liberty. julia had not had the faintest notion of secluding herself.

on the following morning as tay left his hotel he saw her waiting in front of her own. as she smiled and waved her hand he experienced a slight agreeable shock. “aha!” he thought. “i really believe she has switched off. for all mercies, etc.”

julia’s eyes were dancing with anticipation, the firm lines of her mouth had relaxed, and it looked even younger than when he first met her, for then it had curved with some of that bitterness of youth which she had long since outgrown; although it had been replaced first by a cynical humor and then by pride and determination. this morning she was smiling almost as she may have smiled through her first party at government house. and she was looking remarkably pretty in her forest-green tweed, and the sable toque and stole she had taken from their long storage.

“did you ever feel such air?” she cried. “after the heavy dampness of london, it goes to one’s head. i can almost see the alps, as well as feel them.”

“it’s positively immoral, this climate,” said tay, shaking her hand vigorously. “how do people ever sleep here? now i know why they drink so much beer—to keep their feet on the earth.”

“we’ll walk miles and miles.”

“so we will. sorry i couldn’t keep my engagement with you for breakfast, but they fairly shoved that frugal meal into my bed. when we have walked a few hours, we’ll drop in somewhere and eat veal sausages and drink chocolate. that, i am told, is the proper stunt about eleven o’clock. certainly in this climate one could digest the maternal cow between meals.”

they had been walking briskly, but paused at the maximilianplatz. the closely planted trees and shrubs of the long narrow park were covered with ice and glittered blindingly in the bright winter sunshine. even the tall houses on the further sides of the streets that enclosed it had icicles depending from the windows, glittering with the prismatic hues. overhead soft thick masses of cloud hung below the deep rich blue of the sky. people were hurrying along in their furs, the shop-windows were full of color. a royal carriage passed, as blue as the sky, and an old man saluted his loyal subjects.

tay whistled.

“lucky for you it’s so hard to get married in a foreign town, or my promises might go up in smoke. this is just the place for a honeymoon.”

“isn’t it? let’s imagine we are just married and doing europe for the first time.”

“you can do the imagining,” said tay, dryly. “my imagination will take a well-earned rest for the present. we’ll return to munich later.”

they wandered about the narrow crooked shopping district for a time, then up the wide ludwigstrasse, almost deserted at this hour.

“good clean street,” said tay, approvingly. “and i like these flat brown old palaces. they look like italy without suggesting daggers and poison.”

julia didn’t answer, and tay looked at her curiously. her head was thrown back, her mouth half open, as if inhaling the crystal air. there was a faint pink flush in her white cheeks, and her lips were scarlet. her shining happy eyes were moving restlessly, as if to take in all points of the beautiful street at once. tay was about to ask her a question that had been in his mind since they started, when she caught him suddenly by the arm.

“look!” she exclaimed. “do you see that party there across the street? they have skates! i remember now, ishbel said there was fine skating in the park. oh, how i should love to skate once more!”

“then skate!” cried tay. “we’ll follow them.”

“but of course you don’t. there is no ice in california.”

“but of course i do. you forget i spent four winters in new england. let me tell you, i didn’t miss a trick.”

“do you fancy we can hire skates?”

“i fancy we’ll skate if you want to. come along. we mustn’t let them out of our sight.”

they followed the group of girls and boys into the englischer garten, a vast and glittering expanse of ice-laden trees. the lake was already well covered with skaters, young people for the most part, as it was saturday, wearing worsted sweaters, scarves, and mitts, and all looking very red, very ugly, and very happy in a stolid deliberate way. tay found skates without difficulty, and after a few minutes’ uncertain practice, they skimmed smoothly over the surface.

“i wish we had it to ourselves,” said tay, discontentedly. “if it were not for these unromantic mortals, we could imagine we were in a sort of polar fairy land. i’ve seen the ice-storm in new england but never on such a scale. we are quite in the middle of a frozen wood.”

“if the people of munich were as artistic about themselves as they are about their city, they would all dress in white for skating. then what a sight it would be! but at least they look happy.”

“so do you.”

“i am, oh, i am!”

“may i ask if it is because you have the rare privilege of a day in my exclusive society?”

“partly that. but not all. can you make curves? i never shall forget my delight when i skated for the first time—after being brought up in the tropics! fancy!”

“perhaps it didn’t take so much to make you happy in those days.”

“oh, far more! far, far more! i have been really happy since then.”

“if you don’t mind what you call it.”

“where do you suppose the swans go in winter?”

“haven’t an idea, and care less. look out!”

they almost collided with a large corsetless lady in a white sweater, a red woollen scarf tied round her purple face, and a gray skirt exhibiting massive pedestals. she glared at the fashionable intruders, but described a curve of surprising agility, although as she propelled herself to the other side of the lake she gave the impression of waddling.

julia snatched her hand from tay’s and shot after the expansive back. “catch me!” she cried. and for the next twenty minutes tay pursued her, sometimes almost heading her off, sometimes almost grasping her waving hand, only to find her flying to the other end of the lake. she looked like an elf, with her green dress and golden hair, and was not for a moment lost sight of in the undistinguished throng. tay, whose blood was up, chased her until he finally brought her to bay, when she threw herself down on the bank and held out her skates to be unbuckled.

“good symbol,” said tay, as he knelt before her, “i’ll catch you every time, my lady. don’t ever try running away, or you’ll merely get tired for nothing.”

“i’m the better skater!”

“you are. but i’m a good sprinter. do you want to race me?”

“rather!”

he delivered up the skates, and when they reached a straight expanse of road, they drew a long breath, hunched their shoulders, and started on a dead run.

to tay’s surprise she kept abreast of him for nearly fifty yards, making up for what she lacked in length of limb with a fleetness of foot that gave her the effect of a bird in full flight. then he shot past her, and came back to find her panting, but with dancing eyes.

“i am so hungry!” she cried. “is it time for sausages and chocolate?”

“it’s time for lunch, or whatever they call it here. do you suppose we can find a cab? much as i dote on exercise i think a cab after coffee and rolls some three hours agone would suit me.”

“where shall we lunch?”

“i’ll sample your hotel, if you don’t mind, and you will dine with me.”

“and afterward we must go to one of the big cafés for coffee. that is the proper thing.”

“you shall have your way in trifles so long as i have beaten you twice.”

they found a cab near one of the gates of the park, and drove as rapidly to the hotel as the fat driver and lean horse could be persuaded to go, and both too hungry for further nonsense. they had an admirable luncheon, in spite of the fact that it was not the “high season,” and then were directed to the café luitpold for their coffee. it was full of students, the “trees” covered with their caps of every color, and the atmosphere dense with smoke. they found a table in an alcove, and julia lit a cigarette with the agreeable sensation of having come at last to the real bohemia.

“now,” said tay, “i’ve got you where you can’t escape, and there are no english people to overhear. i propose to know what you think you are this morning. you are playing some sort of a part, and a charming enough part it is, but for complete enjoyment i must be on. i only half understand. out with it.”

julia leaned her head against the wall and smiled.

“i don’t mind telling you in the least. i am just eighteen, and i have just arrived from nevis. i never had time to be really young, you know. so here is my opportunity.”

“you look the r?le, but how—well, you are young enough in any case; but how do you manage to relight the eighteen candles? you’ve lived some since then. i couldn’t do it!”

julia smiled mysteriously. “we never really exhaust any phase, particularly of youth. it is merely stowed away waiting for the current. mine leaped up at the first signal. you appeared with the battery, and presto!”

“you suppressed it mighty well for quite two weeks.”

“oh, i could have buried it deeper still, but i didn’t choose to. i deliberately shook it out of its cave where it was comfortably hibernating, and put all the rest in its place.”

“why didn’t you do it before? i can’t be the first young and ardent admirer you have met. you are thirty-four—you have been free eight years—it is incredible. is it merely the first good chance you have had? i don’t know whether i like being your stalking horse or not.”

julia leaned her elbows on the table and looked him straight in the eyes.

“that has something to do with it, but not all. if you had come a year earlier, when i couldn’t have left for a minute, it would have been different, of course. but there was this sudden lull, and, you see, i am frightfully in love.”

the shot was so unexpected that tay turned white, then the red rushed to his face. he had been lounging. he sat up stiffly and leaned forward.

“julia!” he said. “be careful. i shan’t stand for any flirting.”

“oh, i’m much too young to flirt—i mean i hadn’t heard the word when i left nevis. of course i’m in love with you—fancy i have been for years. i don’t mind in the least if you no longer are in love with me.”

“i’m in love all right, but i’d like mighty well to know which of the several julias you’ve treated me to i’m in love with.”

“don’t you like this one?”

“i’d like nothing better than to know that you really were eighteen and that i could teach you all you would ever know.”

“you’ll teach me all i’ll ever know about love.”

“ah!”

“the past is a blank as far as i am concerned. i can wipe anything off the slate.”

“i don’t know—i don’t know— charming as you are now, i found you enchanting fifteen years ago, and quite as fascinating in another way when we met again. i don’t think i want the other julias obliterated.”

“but you can stand this one for a week?”

“i’ll ask for nothing better—for a week. but—somehow—you look almost too young to know what love is. you look like a child pretending.”

“i am and i’m not. i can’t annihilate the years, but i can send them to the rear, and put youth, and all that means when it has its rights, in front—and keep it there as long as i choose.”

tay stirred uneasily. “i’ve seen women of thirty—forty—in love before this, and they always look rejuvenated—but—well, i wish you had never lived those years in the orient. you’ve got yourself too well in hand. it’s uncanny.”

“oh, if you prefer me as the general of a militant army,” and she drew herself up, her features arranged themselves in an expression of stern composure, her eyes were steady and exalted, and her mouth subtly older.

“drop it!” said tay, savagely. “drop it! that at least you are to cut out for good and all. i’m quite content with you as you are—” julia’s face was relaxed and smiling once more. “it is enough to know your possibilities. remain as you are until you have developed under my tuition; and forget your oriental learning also.”

“that is just the one thing i never would part with. without it i should be no match for you.”

“tell me one thing right here. do you fancy yourself something more than mere woman? i mean did those old wiseacres in the east convince you that you were a soul reincarnated for a purpose, even before they taught you too much of their psychic lore? i don’t know whether i like the idea or not. living with a reincarnated immortal soul several hundred million years old, developed that much beyond ordinary women, might not be all that a mortal man desires. how in creation could i ever live up to you?”

“don’t look so far ahead. do i look like anything but a very mortal woman at the present moment?”

“you look so adorable that if there were a little more smoke in this room i should kiss you. but—you little devil!—you have chosen the most public place in munich to tell me all this, and you waited until you got out of england, where i did have a chance to see you alone?—”

“of course. love-making would spoil it all. nothing can ever be as enchanting as just being in love and asking for no more.”

“can’t it? well, you can have your little comedy here, and i’ll take matters in my own hands when we get back. you’ve got things all your own way now—hang it! hang it!”

“can’t you, too, feel young and irresponsible? you really would be happy, and make me happy. and it would be something to remember!”

“i feel more like going out and getting drunk. however—have your own way. i’ll play up?—”

“no, feel.”

“no doubt i shall. your utter youth was contagious enough this morning. i’ve got some will myself. but say it again— is it possible that you really love me?”

“yes, i do,” said julia, softly. “never let that worry you.”