married an ungovernable creature?"

"I doubt if anybody is absolutely ungovernable. In the army I have had
to deal with some stiff propositions; but there is always a way."

"Is there? But in the army you deal with men. And we are so utterly
different."

"I think I should have found the way."

"Could he find the way now?" she thought. "Shall I do it? Shall I risk
it?"

"Why do you look at me like that?" he asked; "almost as if you were
looking at me for the first time and were trying to make me out?"

She did not answer, but gave him his tea and sat back on her sofa.

"You sent for me for some special reason. You had some plan, some
project in your mind," he continued. "I did not realize that at first,
but now I am sure of it. You want me to help you in some way, don't
you?"

She was still companioned by the desperation which had come upon her
when she had made that, for her, terrible comparison between Beryl Van
Tuyn's age and Craven's. Somehow it had opened her eyes--her own remark.
In hearing it she had seemed to hear other voices, almost a sea of
voices, saying things about herself, pitying things, sneering things,
bitter things; worst of all, things which sent a wave of contemptuous
laughter through the society to which she belonged. Ten years multiplied
by three! No, it was impossible! But there was only one way out. She was
almost sure that if she were left to herself, were left to be her own
mistress in perfect freedom, her temperament would run away with her
again as it had so often done in the past. She was almost sure that
she would brave the ridicule, would turn a face of stone to the subtle
condemnation, would defy the contempt of the "old guard," the sorrow
and pity of Seymour, the anger of Beryl Van Tuyn, even her own
self-contempt, in order to satisfy the imperious driving force within
her which once again gave her no rest. Seymour could save her from all
that, save her almost forcibly. Safety from it was there with her in
the room. Rocheouart, Rupert Louth, other young men were about her for a
moment. The brown eyes of the man who had stolen her jewels looked down
into hers pleading for--her property. After all her experiences could
she be fool enough to follow a marshlight again? But Alick Craven was
different from all these men. She gave him something that he really
seemed to want. He would be sorry, he would perhaps be resentful, if she
took it away.

"Adela, if you cannot trust the old do