Because Yamina had never been emotionally awakened, it had been for her like looking at a picture which, however beautiful, left one outside the subject it depicted.

Now she was inside, now she was completely involved in love and it was different from anything she had expected or imagined.

She knew quite literally that she would be prepared to die for Lord Castleford if it was asked of her. But the problem was not to die, but to live without him.

At last luncheon was finished and Jenkins cleared the table, removed the coffee cups and left them alone.

Yamina rose from the table to go to the open porthole.

The sea was so smooth that there was no reason to have it closed and the warm sun flooded into the cabin with a golden light.

There was the fragrance of flowers on the air and the sea was emerald green shading to an azure blue at the base of the distant islands.

It was all so exquisitely lovely and there was, Yamina thought, a difference in the quality of light to anywhere else she had ever been.

She was sure that it was the pure light of the Gods that made the high hills have a fragility about them, and the very air seemed full of the vibrations of light coming from another world.

She thought that if they came near enough to the islands that were so much a part of Greek mythology she would see one of the Goddesses playing on a lyre, another on a flute and a third on a shepherd’s pipe.

She could almost hear the music coming to her across the water, and yet she knew that the melody was within herself because of her love and because Lord Castleford was near her.

He sat for a few minutes watching her, the sunshine haloing her head, the perfection of her profile silhouetted against the sky.

Then at last he said quietly,

“Come here, Yamina – I wish to talk to you.”

“It is safer when I am not – too near to you,” she answered.

He smiled very tenderly as he replied,

“If by saying that you think you can escape me, you are wrong!”

“I am trying to think,” Yamina said, “and it is impossible to think – when I am close to you.”

“There is no need for you to think,” Lord Castleford said. “I have already decided everything! So come here, as I have asked you to do!”

She turned round slowly and saw that he was standing holding out his hand to her and, as if she could not help herself, she ran towards him.

He gave a laugh of sheer happiness as he pulled her against him and then, as he felt a quiver go through her, he said,

“So sweet, so irresistible, so utterly and completely adorable!”

Her eyes dropped at the passion in his voice and her eyelashes were dark against her white skin.