row less intense
with time, being quite the same when they arrived at a fashionable
resort in the Virginia mountains, on their way to New York. For such
were the exactions of his calling that he could spare but two weeks for
his honeymoon.

Honora's interest in her new surroundings was as great, and the sight of
those towering ridges against the soft blue of the autumn skies inspired
her. It was Indian summer here, the tang of wood smoke was in the air;
in the valleys--as they drove--the haze was shot with the dust of gold,
and through the gaps they looked across vast, unexplored valleys to
other distant, blue-stained ridges that rose between them and the
sunset. Honora took an infinite delight in the ramshackle cabins beside
the red-clay roads, in the historic atmosphere of the ancient houses
and porticoes of the Warm Springs, where the fathers of the Republic had
come to take the waters. And one day, when a north wind had scattered
the smoke and swept the sky, Howard followed her up the paths to the
ridge's crest, where she stood like a Victory, her garments blowing,
gazing off over the mighty billows to the westward. Howard had never
seen a Victory, but his vision of domesticity was untroubled.

Although it was late in the season, the old-fashioned, rambling hotel
was well filled, and people interested Honora as well as scenery--a
proof of her human qualities. She chided Howard because he, too, was not
more socially inclined.

"How can you expect me to be--now?" he demanded.

She told him he was a goose, although secretly admitting the justice of
his defence. He knew four or five men in the hotel, with whom he talked
stocks while waiting for Honora to complete her toilets; and he gathered
from two of these, who were married, that patience was a necessary
qualification in a husband. One evening they introduced their wives.
Later, Howard revealed their identity--or rather that of the husbands.

"Bowker is one of the big men in the Faith Insurance Company, and Tyler
is president of the Gotham Trust." He paused to light a cigarette, and
smiled at her significantly. "If you can dolly the ladies along once in
a while, Honora, it won't do any harm," he added. "You have a way with
you, you know,--when you want to."

Honora grew scarlet.

"Howard!" she exclaimed.

He looked somewhat shamefaced.

"Well," he said, "I was only joking. Don't take it seriously. But it
doesn't do any harm to be polite."

"I am always p