"It is a quarter past midnight."
The faintest shadow of a smile passed over the girl's lips.
"Are you certain that your watch is not fast?" she asked.
In speechless bewilderment Howland stared at her.
"Because it will mean a great deal to you and to me if it is not a quarter past midnight," continued Meleese, a growing glow in her eyes. Suddenly she approached him and put both of her warm hands to his face, holding down his arms with her own. "Listen," she whispered. "Is there nothing--nothing that will make you change your purpose, that will take you back into the South--to-night?"
The nearness of the sweet face, the gentle touch of the girl's hands, the soft breath of her lips, sent a maddening impulse through Howland to surrender everything to her. For an instant he wavered.
"There might be one--just one thing that would take me away to-night," he replied, his voice trembling with the great love that thrilled him. "For you, Meleese, I would give up everything--ambition, fortune, the building of this road. If I go to-night will you go with me? Will you promise to be my wife when we reach Le Pas?"
A look of ineffable tenderness came into the beautiful eyes so near to his own.
"That is impossible. You will not love me when you know what I am--what I have done--"
He stopped her.