"You loved me once," he asserted.
She shook her head pityingly.
"We played with great words as children play with coloured balls. It is easy to say 'I love you,' and often very sweet; yet the coloured balls roll into the corner, and the child forgets them when the moon of childhood wanes."
A wistful irritation puckered Noel's smooth countenance.
"You have outgrown me?" he questioned.
Katherine drew away from him till the moonlight that shone between them lay wide and white. She answered quietly:
"My soul was in bud a week ago. To-day it is in blossom."
Noel threw up his arms impatiently.
"God have mercy! What can this fellow do that is denied to me? Can he stride a horse, or fly a hawk better? show a brighter sword in quarrel, or tune a smoother lute in calm? Can he out-dance me, out-drink me, out-courtier me, out-soldier me? No, no, no! And must I now believe that he can out-love me?"
Katherine, weary of the controversy, began to ascend the steps to the palace. She spoke as she mounted: