w and then. But for a great part of the time I shall be
beyond the reach of posts."

Though his surface hardness had melted, his voice had an impersonal
note that crushed her, making her feel as if she were dealing with a
cosmic force, rather than a human being;--one of his own detestable
mountains, for instance. But for that, it is conceivable that there
might have been something approaching a 'scene'; that she might have
obeyed her unreasoning impulse to plead with him, and exhort him not to
push his test of her to such pitiless lengths. As it was, she sank
into a chair without answering; and he turned towards the study with a
new lift of his head, a new elasticity of step that struck at her heart.

For, in truth, until he read that summons from Simla he had scarcely
known how irresistibly the old free life drew him; how the white
silence of the mountains called to him as friend calls friend; and the
whole heart of him answered, 'I come.' 'As the dew is dried up by the
sun, so are the sins of mankind by the glory of Himachal.' The words
of the old Hindoo worshipper sprang to his brain, and for him they were
no fanciful imagery, but a radiant truth. Six months of the Himalayas,
six months of freedom from brain work, and headache, and strain,--for
though loyalty denied it, the past month had been a strain,--would
suffice to break the power of the hideous thing that was sapping his
manhood; to dispel the great black something that shadowed his mind and
spirit--to set him on his feet again, a free man.

But since he had kept the deeper source of his trouble secret from
Quita, she did not hold the key to the deeper source of his joy. And
now, lying back in his chair, her eyes closed, violet shadows showing
beneath the black line of her lashes, she saw herself, momentarily, as
a trivial thing--a mere tangle of nerves, perversity, and
egotism--flung aside without hesitation, perhaps even with relief, at
the first call of the larger life, the larger loyalty. Two tears stole
out on to her lashes, and slipped down her check. Mere concessions to
overwrought feeling, and she knew it; knew, in the depths of her, that
she was no triviality, but a woman into whose hands power had been
given; the power of things primeval that are the mainspring of life.

For Quita also had her secret--at once mysterious and disturbing; since
to your highly-strung woman motherhood rarely comes as a matter of
course--a secret that brought h