"My love! my dear love! I have frightened you. Oh, you must not cry like that. Look at me, Gabrielle! How I have lived for you! Not one hour in which I have not thought of you. And this, God's mercy, is greater than His trial." Stefanovitch raised the drooping head and covered her face with his passionate kisses. "My love! My love!" he said. And Gabrielle at that moment seemed to wake from a dream. Here was the heart that she could rest upon. What other thoughts were those which she had permitted to linger for awhile? They were fading already, were passing with her tears. [Illustration: "SHE PUT HER ARMS ABOUT HIS NECK."] She put her arms about his neck; and so they were silent for a time, standing motionless beneath the trees. Stefanovitch said at last:-- "Who told you that I was dead, little one? Who caused you such pain?" "It is so terrible a story. I heard that you escaped--" "And so I did." "That in the forest you were caught by a regiment of Cossacks, and that--" Stefanovitch interrupted her. "What!" he cried out, "you heard of that? Yes, it was true; but, Gabrielle, at a moment like this, when my cup is overflowing, I can forgive even Ivan Vassilitch--" Gabrielle sprang from him as if he had struck her. In an instant she saw the whole truth. The cry she would have uttered died on her parted lips. She remained mute, bewildered, paralyzed with astonishment. "Ah, you know the man," said Stefanovitch. "I had forgotten that. Well, let him pass, Gabrielle. Come, you are shivering. It is so cold out here. May I come indoors for an hour?" * * * * * The ex-captain of Cossacks closed the gate as he left the avenue. He had heard every word. And he had let them go. Why, he might have pistolled Stefanovitch as he stood there! He remained in the snow-covered road, staring at the darkened fields, pallid with grief and rage. Suddenly he snatched the Derringer from his pocket. The barrel into which he looked was but a tiny orifice, yet wide and deep as the pit of death. He lifted his arm. A pressure of the finger, that was all that was needed-- "Bah! for a woman? She is not worth it!" Vassilitch fired into the air. The report echoed and re-echoed--a note of thunder in the quiet night! _Eccentricities of Equilibrium._ BY LOUIS NIKOLA. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR. As a preliminary to the practical reproduction of the experiments herein described, it is necessary to invade the kitchen and to carry off the following articles, viz.: four forks, a plate, a tea-cup, a bottle, some corks, the cook's basting-ladle and strainer, and a few other odd things which will be found enumerated from time to time in connection with the experiments in which they become necessary. [Illustration] [Illustration] 1.--TO BALANCE A COIN ON THE EDGE OF A BOTTLE.