out me since that night?"

She was silent, all her attention concentrated upon her bunch of heather.
His eyes left her face and began to study her hands.

After a moment he pulled a bit of string out of his pocket and without
a word proceeded to wind it round the stalks she held. As he knotted
it he spoke.

"So that is why you were afraid of me to-day. I knew there was something.
I winded it the moment we met. Whenever I hold your hand in mine I can
see into your soul. What was it, Anne? The Knave of Diamonds on a black
mare--riding to perdition?"

He laughed at her softly as though she had been a child. He was still
watching her hands. Suddenly he laid his own upon them and looked
into her face.

"Or was it just a savage?" he asked her quietly.

Against her will, in spite of the blaze of sunshine, she shivered.

"Yes," he said. "But isn't it better to face him than to run away?
Haven't you always found it so? You kissed him once, Anne. Do you
remember? It was the greatest thing that ever happened to him."

He spoke with a gentleness that amazed her. His eyes held hers, but
without compulsion. He was lulling her fear of him to rest, as he
alone knew how.

She answered him with quivering lips. "I have wondered since if I
did wrong."

"Then don't wonder," he said. "For I was nearer to the God you worship
at that moment than I had ever been before. I never believed in Him till
then, but that night I wrestled with Him--and got beaten." He dropped
suddenly into his most cynical drawl, so that she wondered if, after
all, he were mocking her. "It kind of made an impression on me. I
thought it might interest you to know. Have you had enough of this yet?
Shall we move on?"

She rose in silence. She was very far from certain, and yet she fancied
there had been a ring of sincerity in his words.

As they reached the car she laid her hand for an instant on his arm. "If
it did that for you, Nap," she said, "I do not regret it."

He smiled in his faint, cynical fashion. "I believe you'll turn me out a
good man some day," he said. "And I wonder if you will like me any when
it's done."

"I only want you to be your better self," she answered gently.

"Which is a myth," he returned, as he handed her in, "which exists only
in your most gracious imagination."

And with that he pulled the mask over his face once more and turned to
the wheel.

CHAPTER XI

THE RETURN TO EARTH

It was nearly two before they rea