lution she turned her head; she could not meet his eyes.
It cut her with a sharp pain to notice when she turned again that he was
not looking at her. He continued fanning himself with his hat as he
gazed out at the view. She felt that the critical moment of her life had
come, that it was now or never as to her fulfilling her settled
intention. So with a rush she went on her way:

'Leonard, you and I have been friends a long time. You know my views on
some points, and that I think a woman should be as free to act as a man!'
She paused; words and ideas did not seem to flow with the readiness she
expected. Leonard's arrogant assurance completed the dragging her back
to earth which her own self-consciousness began:

'Drive on, old girl! I know you're a crank from Crankville on some
subjects. Let us have it for all you're worth. I'm on the grass and
listening.'

Stephen paused. 'A crank from Crankville!'--this after her nights of
sleepless anxiety; after the making of the resolution which had cost her
so much, and which was now actually in process of realisation. Was it
all worth so much? why not abandon it now? . . . Abandon it! Abandon a
resolution! All the obstinacy of her nature--she classed it herself as
firmness--rose in revolt. She shook her head angrily, pulled herself
together, and went on:

'That may be! though it's not what I call myself, or what I am usually
called, so far as I know. At any rate my convictions are honest, and I
am sure you will respect them as such, even if you do not share them.'
She did not see the ready response in his face which she expected, and so
hurried on:

'It has always seemed to me that a--when a woman has to speak to a man
she should do so as frankly as she would like him to speak to her, and as
freely. Leonard, I--I,' as she halted, a sudden idea, winged with
possibilities of rescuing procrastination came to her. She went on more
easily:

'I know you are in trouble about money matters. Why not let me help
you?' He sat up and looked at her and said genially:

'Well, Stephen, you are a good old sort! No mistake about it. Do you
mean to say you would help me to pay my debts, when the governor has
refused to do so any more?'

'It would be a great pleasure to me, Leonard, to do anything for your
good or your pleasure.'

There was a long pause; they both sat looking down at the ground. The
woman's heart beat loud; she feared that the man must hear it. She