in its action, weaving sharp, dynamic images about this new
personality. While his appearance gripped and awed her strangely, at the
same time she felt drawn to him. She turned and threw out her hand. Her
host closed his book and looked up, smiling.

"Ah, _la senora se siente mejor_?" His deep, rich voice, although
lighter than Lawrence's, was full of music, but she did not understand
his words. Her blank expression told him, and he smiled again.

"I remember, you spoke English," he said with only the slightest accent.
"Are you better, _madame_?"

She answered his warm smile and said weakly: "Much better, thank you!"

"And your husband?" Claire saw that he was looking beyond her, and she
turned to find Lawrence at her side. Instinctively she resented his
being there. The warm blood rushed to her face.

"He--oh--he will be all right, I trust!" she stammered falteringly, and
her host looked puzzled. Her impulse was to tell him that Lawrence was
not her husband, but she thought better of it and said nothing about the
relationship.

"He had a long, desperate struggle to bring me here," she said instead.
"You see, I broke my ankle and he had to carry me."

"Oh!" The man rose, his face filled with respect as he looked at
Lawrence asleep beside her.

"From where did he carry you?" he asked.

"From the coast," she shuddered. "It has been terrible!"

His face expressed utter amazement as he repeated: "From the coast? It
is a miracle!"

She made no reply, for Lawrence stirred and tried to sit up.

"You'd better lie still," the stranger said kindly. "You deserve rest,
my friend." Then, as to himself, he added: "It is the first miracle in
which I can believe."

Claire stared at him, and he laughed softly. "Pardon, _madame_! I am an
unhappy seeker after truth," he apologized, throwing a log on the fire.

For Lawrence and Claire the days that followed were uneventful days of
recovery from their hardship. Slowly both of them grew stronger and
resumed their normal habits of thought and speech. Their host was a
gentle nurse, kindly and considerate. Claire assumed her wonted attitude
of the cultured woman, a guest in the house of a friend, and the
Spaniard met her with the polished courtesy of a cosmopolitan. Lawrence,
too, became the usual man that he was, careless of little niceties,
indifferent to form, but a charming companion and a delightful guest.

From the first he and Philip became intensely interested in each o