quainted with men and women, she would have
been more satisfied with herself for being the first at the tryst. The
conventional idea, in the minds of most women and of all men, is that a
woman should never be the first. But real women, those in whom the heart
beats strong, and whose blood can leap, know better. These are the
commanders of men. In them sex calls to sex, all unconsciously at first;
and men answer to their call, as they to men's.

Two opposite feelings strove for dominance as Stephen found herself on
the hilltop, alone. One a feeling natural enough to any one, and
especially to a girl, of relief that a dreaded hour had been postponed;
the other of chagrin that she was the first.

After a few moments, however, one of the two militant thoughts became
dominant: the feeling of chagrin. With a pang she thought if she had
been a man and summoned for such a purpose, how she would have hurried to
the trysting-place; how the flying of her feet would have vied with the
quick rapturous beating of her heart! With a little sigh and a blush,
she remembered that Leonard did not know the purpose of the meeting; that
he was a friend almost brought up with her since boy and girl times; that
he had often been summoned in similar terms and for the most trivial of
social purposes.

For nearly half an hour Stephen sat on the rustic seat under the shadow
of the great oak, looking, half unconscious of its beauty and yet
influenced by it, over the wide landscape stretched at her feet.

In spite of her disregard of conventions, she was no fool; the instinct
of wisdom was strong within her, so strong that in many ways it ruled her
conscious efforts. Had any one told her that her preparations for this
interview were made deliberately with some of the astuteness that
dominated the Devil when he took Jesus to the top of a high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the earth at His feet, she would have, and
with truth, denied it with indignation. Nevertheless it was a fact that
she had, in all unconsciousness, chosen for the meeting a spot which
would evidence to a man, consciously or unconsciously, the desirability
for his own sake of acquiescence in her views and wishes. For all this
spreading landscape was her possession, which her husband would share. As
far as the eye could reach was within the estate which she had inherited
from her father and her uncle.

The half-hour passed in waiting had in one way its adva