Showered with affectionate appreciation, she reaches her highest development; for love is as necessary to her growth as is sunshine to a plant. Denied it, woman can at best but droop and die. Since learning that Yermah was not free to espouse her, Kerœcia was appalled and overwhelmed with the knowledge that she had allowed him to surprise her secret thoughts—to guess accurately at future possibilities. “It is not true,” she murmured. “Yermah, my beloved, think not that I have the heart of a wanton! Forgive—” But there was no answering voice to cry out in return—no one to assure the breaking heart that her love was a priceless treasure—no one to make her see that every emotion was fully appreciated and understood. So the sunshine went out of another life when the breath left Kerœcia’s body. * * * * * Yermah had named the day and hour when Kerœcia should examine the tablet of stones, to enable him to put himself in communication with her mentally. For three days he kept the door of his private sanctuary closed; but at the hour named he knelt before the shrine and fixed his mind intently upon Kerœcia. He smiled softly to himself as he realized that she had opened the ivory casket, that she was examining the workmanship, that she comprehended the significance of the square within the circular wheel. Now she has touched the clasp, and her eyes are greedily drinking in the beauty of the groupings while her senses are thrilled with their message. In his rapture he goes with her, step by step. “She is pleased with the coral-bound island of my birth,” he murmured, “and she gets some idea of her future home.—Thou art right, Mineola, my soul is in the ruby. I have laid my heart bare. Look long and earnestly, Kerœcia; thou art welcome to know its secret places. The opal will tell thee how soon release comes. Thou must not be frightened at its suddenness. Three more lunations separate us. Then to Atlantis, where—” He was wrenched violently and pitched face downward to the floor by the sudden impact of Kerœcia’s agonized thought. “Thou art mistaken!” he cried aloud. “The changing character of the opal must speak to thee. Thy thought dishonors me, for I love thee truly! The vow binds me not for all time. Look again, beloved!” To his finely attuned senses came the knowledge of her anguish and sorrow. He choked and smothered under it. Mentally, he heard her piercing shriek. “O Unseen Divinity! Hear and be gracious to thy distressed servants!” he supplicated, rising to a kneeling position. “O Powers of Air! Convey my thoughts clearly! Make her to see!” Something of the horror of the situation flashed over him. “O Earth yield now thy hidden treasure! Give gold in abundance, that I may fly to her side. Release me, O Brotherhood! I will not be longer bound—” Without sensing it, Yermah had broken the spirit of his vow!