ion-vine would trail and blossom in rose and white
and purple on the edges of the kloofs and gorges, every stem and leaf and
bud and blossom growing and rejoicing in the balmy breeze and the glorious
June sunshine; the cruel, lashing rains, the devastating floods, and the
burning droughts forgotten as though they had never been.

Meanwhile the heavy fringe of dark lashes drooped wearily on Lynette's
white cheeks, and the long-limbed, slight, supple body leaned back in the
favourite chair by the fireside with a little air of languor that only
added to her allure. And Saxham, looking at her, said again in his heart:

"Her children--let them settle the money upon her children!"

She had learned to love, and thrilled at the touch of passion. Well,
Beauvayse was dead, but Love would come again. He would read its
resurrection in the radiance of those eyes. Then, exit Saxham! Such a
marriage as theirs could be easily dissolved, but he would not take the
easy road. He had decided. His should be the strait and narrow way of
death. His death was a debt he owed her. You are to learn why!

While he reviewed, for the thousandth time, this determination of his, and
told himself again how the thing should be done, his tea had grown quite
cold. She leaned forwards and touched his sleeve in drawing his attention
to the neglected cup, and flushed because he started and looked at her so
strangely.

He never, if it could be avoided, touched her. Her old shrinking from him
had worn away. His companionship, though he did not guess it, was to her
desirable--even dear. The light, firm tread of his small muscular feet,
the curt, decided utterance, made welcome music in her ears. She would
watch him without his knowledge when they went abroad together. The esteem
in which his peers and seniors held him, the deference with which his
opinions were solicited and listened to gave her strange delightful throbs
of pride.

She had felt the first stirring of that pride in him when the man who had
been the thinking brain and the beating heart of beleaguered Gueldersdorp
had said, wringing her husband's hand:

"'_If_' you have been of any use to me.... 'If'.... You have been my right
hand and my mainstay from first to last, Saxham, and while I live I shall
remember it!"

Brave words--heartsome words for the hearing of a woman who had loved him.
Lynette was almost sorry that she did not.

He did not believe that he had won any hearts in Gueldersdo