querable thing, which leads them in their battles and
makes them bear any horror rather than give in. They have taken half the
world with it; they are like bulldogs and lions," she thought. "And--and
I am glorying in it."

"Do you know," said Mount Dunstan, "that sometimes you suddenly fling
out the most magnificent flag of colour--as if some splendid flame of
thought had sent up a blaze?"

"I hope it is not a habit," she answered. "When one has a splendid flare
of thought one should be modest about it."

What was there worth recording in the whole hour they spent together?
Outwardly there had only been a chance meeting and a mere passing by.
But each left something with the other and each learned something; and
the record made was deep.

At last she was on her horse again, on the road outside the white gate.

"This morning has been so much to the good," he said. "I had thought
that perhaps we might scarcely meet again this year. I shall become
absorbed in hops and you will no doubt go away. You will make visits or
go to the Riviera--or to New York for the winter?"

"I do not know yet. But at least I shall stay to watch the thorn trees
load themselves with coral." To herself she was saying: "He means to
keep away. I shall not see him."

As she rode off Mount Dunstan stood for a few moments, not moving from
his place. At a short distance from the farmhouse gate a side lane
opened upon the highway, and as she cantered in its direction a horseman
turned in from it--a man who was young and well dressed and who sat well
a spirited animal. He came out upon the road almost face to face with
Miss Vanderpoel, and from where he stood Mount Dunstan could see his
delighted smile as he lifted his hat in salute. It was Lord Westholt,
and what more natural than that after an exchange of greetings the two
should ride together on their way! For nearly three miles their homeward
road would be the same.

But in a breath's space Mount Dunstan realised a certain truth--a
simple, elemental thing. All the exaltation of the morning swooped and
fell as a bird seems to swoop and fall through space. It was all
over and done with, and he understood it. His normal awakening in the
morning, the physical and mental elation of the first clear hours, the
spring of his foot as he had trod the road, had all had but one meaning.
In some occult way the hypnotic talk of the night before had formed
itself into a reality, fantastic and unreasoning as