She spoke with sudden, almost dramatic vehemence, and he gazed at her in mute amazement. Her eyes flashed, and her face was lit up by a glow of inspiration and resolve. "You take me just for the ordinary sort of girl," she went on--"A girl to caress and fondle and marry and make the mother of your children,--now for that you might choose among the girls about here, any of whom would be glad to have you for a husband. But, Robin, do you think I am really fit for that sort of life always?--can't you believe in anything else but marriage for a woman?" As she thus spoke, she unconsciously created a new impression on his mind,--a veil seemed to be suddenly lifted, and he saw her as he had never before seen her--a creature removed, isolated and unattainable through the force of some inceptive intellectual quality which he had not previously suspected. He answered her, very gently-- "Dear, I cannot believe in anything else but love for a woman," he said--"She was created and intended for love, and without love she must surely be unhappy." "Love!--ah yes!" she responded, quickly--"But marriage is not love!" His brows contracted. "You must not speak in that way, Innocent," he said, seriously--"It is wrong--people would misunderstand you--" Her eyes lightened, and she smiled. "Yes!--I'm sure 'people' would!" she answered--"But 'people' don't matter--to ME. It is truth that matters,--truth,--and love!" He looked at her, perplexed. "Why should you think marriage is not love?" he asked--"It is the one thing all lovers wish for--to be married and to live together always--" "Oh, they wish for it, yes, poor things!" she said, with a little uplifting of her brows--"And when their wishes are gratified, they often wish they had not wished!" She laughed. "Robin, this talk of ours is making me feel quite merry! I am amused!" "I am not!" he replied, irritably--"You are much too young a girl to think these things--" She nodded, gravely. "I know! And I ought to get married while young, before I learn too many of 'these things,'" she said--"Isn't that so? Don't frown, Robin! Look at the Sieur Amadis! How peacefully he sleeps! He knew all about love!" "Of course he did!" retorted Robin--"He was a perfectly sensible man--he married and had six children." Innocent nodded again, and a little smile made two fascinating dimples in her soft cheeks. "Yes! But he said good-bye to love first!" He looked at her in visible annoyance. "How can you tell?--what do you know about it?" he demanded. She lifted her eyes to the glimpses of blue sky that showed in deep clear purity between the over-arching boughs,--a shaft of sunlight struck on her fair hair and illumined its pale brown to gold, so that for a moment she looked like the picture of a young rapt saint, lost in heavenly musing.