“Without,” he began, “the free air waits to be pressed by my cramped wings, but although my heart bounds wild as that of any haggard hawk, I tell you, fairest Elsa, that in yonder gilded cage,” and he pointed to the bed, “I——” “Heaven above us! Heer Adrian,” broke in Elsa in alarm, “are you—are you—getting giddy?” “She does not understand. Poor child, how should she?” he murmured in a stage aside. Then he started again. “Yes, most adorable, best beloved, I am giddy, giddy with gratitude to those fair hands, giddy with worship of those lovely eyes——” Now Elsa, unable to contain her merriment any longer, burst out laughing, but seeing that her adorer’s face was beginning to look as it did in the dining-room before he broke the blood vessel, she checked herself, and said: “Oh! Heer Adrian, don’t waste all this fine poetry upon me. I am too stupid to understand it.” “Poetry!” he exclaimed, becoming suddenly natural, “it isn’t poetry.” “Then what is it?” she asked, and next moment could have bitten her tongue out. “It is—it is—love!” and he sank upon his knees before her, where, she could not but notice, he looked very handsome in the subdued light of the room, with his upturned face blanched by sickness, and his southern glowing eyes. “Elsa, I love you and no other, and unless you return that love my heart will break and I shall die.” Now, under ordinary circumstances, Elsa would have been quite competent to deal with the situation, but the fear of over-agitating Adrian complicated it greatly. About the reality of his feelings at the moment, at any rate, it seemed impossible to be mistaken, for the man was shaking like a leaf. Still, she must make an end of these advances. “Rise, Heer Adrian,” she said gently, holding out her hand to help him to his feet. He obeyed, and glancing at her face, saw that it was very calm and cold as winter ice. “Listen, Heer Adrian,” she said. “You mean this kindly, and doubtless many a maid would be flattered by your words, but I must tell you that I am in no mood for love-making.” “Because of another man?” he queried, and suddenly becoming theatrical again, added, “Speak on, let me hear the worst; I will not quail.” “There is no need to,” replied Elsa in the same quiet voice, “because there is no other man. I have never yet thought of marriage, I have no wish that way, and if I had, I should forget it now when from hour to hour I do not know where my dear father may be, or what fate awaits him. He is my only lover, Heer Adrian,” and as Elsa spoke her soft brown eyes filled with tears. “Ah!” said Adrian, “would that I might fly to save him from all dangers, as I rescued you, lady, from the bandits of the wood.”