"Because—I love you!"
The girl tried to laugh away the serious import of his tone.
"I am not looking for men to love me, Paul," she said.
"No, that's the trouble. You never have to."
He turned away again and for a few moments had no other apparent aim in life than a careful scrutiny of the limpid water.
Somehow he felt a chill underlying her most casual words to-day. What had become of the freemasonry between them they had both so readily recognized on shipboard?
Just then Gilbert Ledoux and his wife strolled into the garden. They were genuinely pleased to see Paul and insisted on keeping him for luncheon. The conversation drifted to his western trip and other less personal things and not again did he have an opportunity to talk alone with Opal.
Paul took his departure soon after, promising to return for dinner, and to bring Verdayne with him. Then, he resolved to himself, he would tell Opal why he had come. Then he would claim her as his wife—his queen!
And Paul kept his word.