ons. But that was the limit of their unanimity. Amanda loved
wild and picturesque things, and Benham strong and clear things; the
vines and brushwood amidst the ruins of Salona that had delighted her
had filled him with a sense of tragic retrogression. Salona had revived
again in the acutest form a dispute that had been smouldering between
them throughout a fitful and lengthy exploration of north and central
Italy. She could not understand his disgust with the mediaeval colour
and confusion that had swamped the pride and state of the Roman empire,
and he could not make her feel the ambition of the ruler, the essential
discipline and responsibilities of his aristocratic idea. While his
adventurousness was conquest, hers, it was only too manifest, was
brigandage. His thoughts ran now into the form of an imaginary
discourse, that he would never deliver to her, on the decay of states,
on the triumphs of barbarians over rulers who will not rule, on the
relaxation of patrician orders and the return of the robber and assassin
as lordship decays. This coast was no theatrical scenery for him; it was
a shattered empire. And it was shattered because no men had been found,
united enough, magnificent and steadfast enough, to hold the cities,
and maintain the roads, keep the peace and subdue the brutish hates and
suspicions and cruelties that devastated the world.

And as these thoughts came back into his mind, Amanda flickered up from
below, light and noiseless as a sunbeam, and stood behind his chair.

Freedom and the sight of the world had if possible brightened and
invigorated her. Her costume and bearing were subtly touched by the
romance of the Adriatic. There was a flavour of the pirate in the cloak
about her shoulders and the light knitted cap of scarlet she had stuck
upon her head. She surveyed his preoccupation for a moment, glanced
forward, and then covered his eyes with her hands. In almost the same
movement she had bent down and nipped the tip of his ear between her
teeth.

"Confound you, Amanda!"

"You'd forgotten my existence, you star-gazing Cheetah. And then, you
see, these things happen to you!"

"I was thinking."

"Well--DON'T.... I distrust your thinking. This coast is wilder and
grimmer than yesterday. It's glorious...."

She sat down on the chair he unfolded for her.

"Is there nothing to eat?" she asked abruptly.

"It is too early."

2

"This coast is magnificent," she said presently.

"It