the African sun, which had enhanced his natural darkness. Though he
spoke as a boy, he looked like a man. His mother's heart yearned over
him.

Peter had taken his lack of perception with him into the heart of
South Africa, and brought it back intact. Because his body had
travelled many hundreds of miles over land and sea, he believed that
his mind had opened in proportion to the distance covered. He knew
that men and women of action pick up knowledge of the world without
pausing on their busy way; but he did not know that it is to the
silent, the sorrowful, and the solitary--to those who have time to
listen--that God reveals the secrets of life.

She said to herself that everything about him was dear to her; his
grey eyes, that never saw below the surface of things; his thin, brown
face; his youthful affectation; the strange, new growth which
shaded his long upper lip, and softened the plainness of the Crewys
physiognomy, which Peter would not have bartered for the handsomest
set of Greek features ever imagined by a sculptor. Even for his faults
Lady Mary had a tender toleration; for Peter would not have been Peter
without them.

"It would not be fair on Sarah, knowing all London--worth knowing--as
she does," said Peter with pardonable exaggeration, "to rob her of the
season altogether. We shall go up regularly, every year, if--if she
marries me. Of that I am determined, and so"--incidentally--"is she."

"Nothing could be nicer," said Lady Mary, heartily enough to satisfy
even Peter.

He spoke with more warmth and naturalness. "She likes to go abroad,
mother, too, now and then," he said.

"That would be delightful," said Lady Mary, eagerly. Her blue eyes
sparkled. Her interest and enthusiasm were easily roused, after all;
and surely these new ideas would make it much easier to tell Peter.
"Oh, Peter!" she said, clasping her hands, "Paris--Rome--Switzerland!"

"Wherever Sarah fancies," said Peter, magnanimously. "I can't say I
care much. All I am thinking of is--being with her. It doesn't matter
_where_, so long as she is pleased. What does anything matter," he
said, and his dark face softened as she had never seen it soften yet,
"so long as one is with the companion one loves best in the world?"

"It would be--Paradise," said Lady Mary, in a low voice; and she
thought to herself resolutely, "I will tell him now."

Peter ceased his walk, and came close to her and took her hand. The
emotion had not altogether