ch
beat unceasingly above its shifting sands lifted the soul to some
undreamed of realm of eternal morning. Something that slept deep within
him stirred faintly; the old passion to adventure, to explore rose in
his heart, his restless, reckless heart, which had, so he believed,
found peace.

The shadow deepened in his eyes, but he suddenly roused from this
momentary abstraction to find that Pearl was still speaking.

"Yes, I love them because they are so beautiful, but I love them, too,
because they are valuable."

"Well, there is no question about your making all the money you wish,"
he said, a slight weariness in his tone, "thousands and thousands. The
world will fling it at you. It will cover you with jewels."

She smiled, a faint, secretive smile of triumph. Ah, so he recognized
that. She had made him feel and admit that she was one of the few great
dancers.

Then, she, too, sighed. "If only," she said, forgetful of him and
following out her train of thought aloud, "if only when I get what I
want, I wouldn't always want something else! Did you ever feel if you
could just be free, really free, you wouldn't want anything else in the
world?"

"How could any one be more free than you are?" he laughed down at her.

"I know, I know," she agreed, still speaking wistfully, "but I'd like to
be free of myself; myself is so strange, and there's so many of me."
Then the veil of her instinctive reticence fell over her again and she
began to talk of her recent attempts to get about on snow-shoes, Jose
and Hugh having been her instructors, so far. Harry immediately offered
his services, and she accepted them, agreeing to go out with him the
next morning.

And as they talked Jose glanced at them from time to time, a touch of
malicious laughter in his odd glancing eyes; there were few things that
escaped Jose.

That evening, after Seagreave had gone home, when Jose and Gallito and
Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Nitschkan had sat late over their cards, Gallito
had risen after a final game, mended the fire, poured himself a glass of
cognac, lighted another cigarette and, stretching himself in an
easy-chair, entered into one of those confidential talks which he
occasionally permitted himself with his chosen cronies. The earlier part
of the evening Jose and Pearl had danced for a time together, and then
Pearl had danced for a time alone and in a manner to please even her
father's critical taste. Now, in commenting on this, he remarked