nce Hall of old."

They sought and found a sofa in a retired, shadowy corner.

"That's ever so nice," she said simply. "Sit down there."

He obeyed, and there was a momentary silence between them. Then the
emotion astir within her swept all before it. Turning suddenly, she
flung both arms round his neck and hid her face upon his shoulder, her
breath coming in short, dry sobs, like the breath of an overwrought
child.

Very tenderly, as one who touches that which he fears to bruise or
break, he drew her close to him, his own pulses quickened by a
remembrance of the words that gave the clue to her strange behaviour,
and during those few minutes between dance and dance, Evelyn Desmond
arrived at a truer knowledge of the man she had married, in the
girlish ignorance of mere fascination, than two years of life with him
had brought to her half-awakened heart.

BOOK II.

"In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men."
--SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER XVII.

YOU WANT TO GO!

"White hands cling to the tightened rein,
Slipping the spur from the booted heel,
Tenderest voices cry 'Turn again!'
Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel.
High hopes faint on a warm hearth-stone;
He travels the fastest who travels alone."
--KIPLING.

For the first six weeks of the new year life flowed serenely enough in
the bungalow on the mound.

Relieved of the greater part of her burden, and re-established in her
husband's heart, Evelyn Desmond blossomed like a flower under the
quickening influences of spring. Light natures develop best in
sunshine: and so long as life asked no hard things of her, Evelyn
could be admirably sweet-tempered and self-forgetful--even to the
extent of curbing her weakness for superfluous hats and gloves and
shoes. A genuine sacrifice, this last, if not on a very high plane.
But the limits of such natures are set, and their feats of virtue or
vice must be judged accordingly.

To Honor, whose very real sympathy was infallibly tinged with humour,
the bearing of this regenerate Evelyn suggested a spoilt child who,
having been scolded and forgiven, is disposed to be heroically,
ostentatiously good till next time; and her goodness at least was
whole-hearted while it lasted. She made a genuine effort to handle the
reins of t