e but Bill Dennant
and--Antonia herself!

They had been galloping; and she was flushed--flushed as when she stood
on the old tower at Hyeres, but with a joyful radiance different from the
calm and conquering radiance of that other moment. To Shelton's delight
they fell into line with him, and all three went galloping along the
strip between the trees and rails. The look she gave him seemed to say,
"I don't care if it is forbidden!" but she did not speak. He could not
take his eyes off her. How lovely she looked, with the resolute curve of
her figure, the glimpse of gold under her hat, the glorious colour in her
cheeks, as if she had been kissed.

"It 's so splendid to be at home! Let 's go faster, faster!" she cried
out.

"Take a pull. We shall get run in," grumbled her brother, with a
chuckle.

They reined in round the bend and jogged more soberly down on the far
side; still not a word from her to Shelton, and Shelton in his turn spoke
only to Bill Dennant. He was afraid to speak to her, for he knew that
her mind was dwelling on this chance forbidden meeting in a way quite
different from his own.

Approaching Hyde Park Corner, where Ferrand was still standing against
the rails, Shelton, who had forgotten his existence, suffered a shock
when his eyes fell suddenly on that impassive figure. He was about to
raise his hand, when he saw that the young foreigner, noting his
instinctive feeling, had at once adapted himself to it. They passed
again without a greeting, unless that swift inquisition; followed by
unconsciousness in Ferrand's eyes, could so be called. But the feeling of
idiotic happiness left Shelton; he grew irritated at this silence. It
tantalised him more and more, for Bill Dennant had lagged behind to
chatter to a friend; Shelton and Antonia were alone, walking their
horses, without a word, not even looking at each other. At one moment he
thought of galloping ahead and leaving her, then of breaking the vow of
muteness she seemed to be imposing on him, and he kept thinking: "It
ought to be either one thing or the other. I can't stand this." Her
calmness was getting on his nerves; she seemed to have determined just
how far she meant to go, to have fixed cold-bloodedly a limit. In her
happy young beauty and radiant coolness she summed up that sane
consistent something existing in nine out of ten of the people Shelton
knew. "I can't stand it long," he thought, and all of a sudden spoke;
but