attentions. It seemed
necessary frequently to remind himself of that fact, in spite of the
vile humour such reminders as a rule aroused.

He passed into one such now, scowling darkly in the face of an
exquisite, flawless day.

One thing was settled, he assured himself: as soon as he was able to get
about with comfort, he would lose no time in hunting up his wife's
attorneys and finding out why they were slow about prosecuting her case.
Failing satisfaction in that quarter--well, he would find some way to
make things move. It wasn't fair to him to keep him bound to the vows of
a farcical union. He was not prepared to submit to such injustice. He
would, if needs must, hire detectives to find him his wife, that he
might see and in person urge upon her his equal right to release from an
unnatural bondage!

He had lashed himself into a very respectable transport of resentful
rage before he realized what way his thoughts were leading him; but he
calmed down as quickly when, chancing to lift his eyes from their
absorbed study of the planks composing the veranda floor, he discovered
a motor-boat drawing in toward the landing-stage.

At once a smile of childlike serenity displaced the scowl. Instinctively
he gathered himself together to rise, but on reconsideration retained
his seat, gallantry yielding to an intuitive sense of dramatic values; a
chair-bound invalid is a much more sympathetic object than a man
demonstrating a surprisingly quick recovery from an incapacitating
accident.

Nevertheless, there seemed no objection to his returning a cheerful
flourish to the salute of a slender arm, brown and bare to the point
where a turned-back shirtwaist sleeve met a rounded elbow.

At precisely the proper distance from the dock, the motor ceased its
purring; the boat swept on, white water crisping beneath its stem,
ripples widening fanlike from its flanks and sketching sweeping plumes
of purple on the calm ultra-marine surface--its speed at first not
perceptibly moderated. Gradually, then, it yielded to the passive
resistance of the waters, moving slower and more slow until at length it
nosed the landing-stage with a touch well-nigh as gentle as a caress.

Poised lightly over the bows, the woman waited, her figure all in white
sharp-cut against the blue of sky and water, with an effect as vital as
it was graceful. Then at the right instant leaping to the dock with the
headwarp, she made the little vessel fast with two deft