d, "haven't you said that there is no
reason--no earthly reason--"

He broke in upon her almost fiercely. "There is no reason--none
whatever--I swear it! You said yourself that the past was nothing to you.
You meant it, Avery. Say you meant it!"

"But of course I meant it!" she told him. "Only, Piers, there is no
secret chamber in my life that you may not enter. Perhaps some day, dear,
when you come to realize that I am older than Jeanie, you will open all
your doors to me!"

There was pleading in her voice, notwithstanding its note of banter; but
she did not stay to plead. With the whispered words she stooped and
softly kissed him. Then ere he could detain her longer she gently
released herself and was gone.

He saw her light figure flit ghost-like across the dim stretch of grass
and vanish into the shadows. And he started to his feet as if he would
follow or call her back. But he did neither. Be only stood swaying on his
feet with a face of straining impotence--as of a prisoner wrestling
vainly with his iron bars--until she had gone wholly from his sight. And
then with a stifled groan he dropped down again into his chair and
covered his face.

He had paid a heavy price to enter the garden of his desire; but
already he had begun to realize that the fruit he gathered there was
Dead Sea Fruit.

CHAPTER II

THAT WHICH IS HOLY

No bells had rung at the young Squire's wedding. It had been conducted
with a privacy which Miss Whalley described as "almost indecent." But
there was no privacy about his return, and Miss Whalley was shocked
afresh at the brazen heartlessness of it after his recent bereavement.
For Sir Piers and his wife motored home at the end of July through a
village decked with flags and bunting and under a triumphant arch that
made Piers' little two-seater seem absurdly insignificant; while the
bells in the church-tower clanged the noisiest welcome they could
compass, and Gracie--home for the holidays--mustered the school-children
to cheer their hardest as the happy couple passed the schoolhouse gate.

Avery would fain have stopped to greet the child, but Piers would not be
persuaded.

"No, no! To-morrow!" he said. "The honeymoon isn't over till after
to-night."

So they waved and were gone, at a speed which made Miss Whalley wonder
what the local police could be about.

Once past the lodge-gates and Marshall's half-grudging, half-pleased
smile of welcome, the speed was doubled. Piers we