d in his. "And what I have--I hold!"

"How clever of you!" said Juliet, and with a swift lithe movement
freed herself.

His arms went round her in a flash. "I'll make you pay for that!" he
vowed. "How dare you, Juliet? How dare you?"

She resisted him for a second, or two, holding him from her,
half-mocking, half in earnest. Then, as his hold tightened, encompassing
her, she submitted with a low laugh, yielding herself afresh to him under
the old apple-tree, in full and throbbing surrender to his love.

But when at last his hold relaxed, when he had made her pay, she took his
hand and pressed a deep, deep kiss into his palm. "That is--a free gift,
Dicky," she said. "And it is worth more than all the having and holding
in the world."

CHAPTER II

FRIENDSHIP

It was on a misty evening of autumn that Vera Fielding entered her
husband's house once more like a bride returning from her wedding-trip.
There was something of the petted air of a bride about her as she came in
on the squire's arm throwing her greetings right and left to the
assembled servants, and certainly there was in her eyes more of the
shining happiness of a bride than they had ever held before. Her face was
flushed with a pretty eagerness, and the petulant lines about her mouth
were far less apparent than of old. Her laugh had a gay spontaneous ring,
and though her voice still had a slightly arrogant inflection it was not
without softer notes when she addressed the squire.

"I feel as if we had been away for years and years," she said to him, as
they stood together before the blazing fire in the drawing-room. "Isn't
it strange, Edward? Only three months in reality, and such a difference!"

He was lifting the heavy coat from her shoulders, but she turned with it
impulsively and caught him round the neck.

"My dear!" he said, and clasped her coat and all.

"It is going to last, isn't it?" she said, her breath coming quickly.
"You promised--you promised--to love me just as much if I got well!"

He kissed her with reassuring tenderness. "Yes, my girl, yes! It's going
to last all right. We're going to make a happy home of it, you and I."

She clung to him for a few seconds, then broke away with a little laugh.
"You'll have to hunt this winter, Edward. You're getting stout."

"And shoot too," said the squire. "There promises to be plenty of birds.
We'd better have a party if you feel up to it."

She looked at him with kindling eyes. "I'm u