ild, but I
wasn't the handler for him; he spoiled in my care; yet how I loved that
colt--the first. He might have killed me, had I kept him.... It was
over a year before I had the heart to buy again--Clarendon--big,
courageous, swifter than the other, splendid in strength, yet
absolutely reliable in temper. Day after day, in all roads and
weathers, he never failed nor fell--until----"

Beth halted. The parable faltered here. She foresaw a dangerous
question, and finished it true to Clarendon.

"Until----" Bedient repeated.

"Until now--and you have seen him to-day," she said hastily. "Always he
seems to be aiming at improvement with eager, unabated energy. In many
ways, it was hard for me to realize that a horse could be so noble....
And yet I gave to the first something that I didn't have for the
second. Something that belonged to the second, was gone from me----"

A moment passed. Beth glanced into Bedient's face, but the darkness was
too deep for her to see. When he spoke, it was as steadily as ever:

"I understand clearly, Beth. I should say, don't do the first an
injustice. It was those very uncertainties of his, those coltish
frights and tempers, that made you so perfect a mistress of the second,
for you invariably bring forth the _best_ from the second."

Something big came to her from the utterance. But nothing of the
truth--that his heart had just received a death-thrust to its
love-giving.... He had left his gloves in the house. He asked for a cup
of water.... It was strange--his asking for anything. She could
remember only, besides this, his wish expressed that she might ride
with him. He had asked nothing this day. And it was a _cup_ of water
now.... They were in the lamplight, and he had drunk.... She was
standing by the table, and he at the door waiting for her to lift her
eyes.... Suddenly she felt, through the silence, his great strength
pouring over her.

She looked up at last. There was a dazzling light in his eyes, as if
some wonderful good to do had formed in his mind.

"Beth, was he the Other Man--who rested for one day on the mantel in
the studio?"

"Yes."... The question shocked her. She could not have believed that it
was harder for him to ask, than for her to answer....

He came nearer. Like a spirit he came.... He seemed very tall and tired
and white.... Her hand was lifted to his lips, but when she turned, he
was gone.

Beth did not shut the door.... The sound of a shut door must