seemed to be playing half unconsciously, as if her thoughts were
far away in some fair dreamland of the skies. But presently she
looked away from "the bourne of sunset," and her lovely eyes fell
on Eric, standing motionless before her in the shadow of the
apple tree.

The sudden change that swept over her was startling. She sprang
to her feet, the music breaking in mid-strain and the bow
slipping from her hand to the grass. Every hint of colour fled
from her face and she trembled like one of the wind-stirred June
lilies.

"I beg your pardon," said Eric hastily. "I am sorry that I have
alarmed you. But your music was so beautiful that I did not
remember you were not aware of my presence here. Please forgive
me."

He stopped in dismay, for he suddenly realized that the
expression on the girl's face was one of terror--not merely the
startled alarm of a shy, childlike creature who had thought
herself alone, but absolute terror. It was betrayed in her
blanched and quivering lips and in the widely distended blue eyes
that stared back into his with the expression of some trapped
wild thing.

It hurt him that any woman should look at him in such a fashion,
at him who had always held womanhood in such reverence.

"Don't look so frightened," he said gently, thinking only of
calming her fear, and speaking as he would to a child. "I will