f. And from every
point of view it was wisest to accept that last form of interpretation.
The whole conversation had been perilous in character. It had been too
intimate, had touched him too nearly, taking place here in the clear
glooms of the green-wood moreover which bore such haunting kinship to
those singularly sincere, and yet mysterious, eyes. It is dangerous to
ride across the floor of ocean with the whispering tide sweeping
overhead, and in such gallant company, besides, that to ride thus
forever could hardly come amiss!--Richard, in his turn, straightened
himself up in the saddle, opened his chest, taking a long breath,
carried his head high, said a stern "get thee behind me, Satan," to
encroaching sentiment and emotion, and to those fair visions which his
companion's presence and her somewhat daring talk had conjured up. He
defied the earth-magic, defied those sylvan deities who as he divined,
sought to enthral him. For the moment he confounded Honoria's influence
with theirs. It was something of a battle, and not the first one he had
fought to-day. For the great, white road which leads onward to
Perfection looked dusty and arid enough--no reposeful shadow, no
mystery, no beguiling green glooms over it! Stark, straight, hard, it
stretched on endlessly, as it seemed, ahead. To travel it was slow and
tedious work, in any case; and to travel it on crutches!--But it was
worse than useless to play with such thoughts as these. He would put a
stop to this disintegrating talk. He turned to Honoria and spoke
lightly, with a return of self-mockery.

"Oh! your first instinct was the true one, depend upon it," he said.
"Though I don't deny it contributed, indirectly, to giving me a pretty
rough time."

"Oh! dear me!" Honoria cried, almost piteously. Then she added:--"But I
don't see, why was that?"

"Because, I suppose, I had a sort of unwilling belief in you," he said,
smiling.--Oh! this accursed conversation, why would it insistently
drift back into intimacy thus!

"Have I justified that belief?" she asked, with a certain pride yet a
certain eagerness.

"More than justified it," Dickie answered. "My mother, who has a
touchstone for all that is of high worth, knew you from the first. Like
the devils, I--I believed and trembled--at least that is how I see it
all now. So your action came as a rather searching revelation and
condemnation. When I perceived all that it involved--oh, well! first I
went to the dogs, and