had given him a good-morrow, smiling and frank, he
explained himself by the announcement that he bore her a message from
Captain Blood.

He observed her little start and the slight quiver of her lips, and
observed thereafter not only her pallor and the shadowy rings about her
eyes, but also that unusually wistful air which last night had escaped
his notice.

They moved out of the open to one of the terraces, where a pergola of
orange-trees provided a shaded sauntering space that was at once cool
and fragrant. As they went, he considered her admiringly, and marvelled
at himself that it should have taken him so long fully to realize
her slim, unusual grace, and to find her, as he now did, so entirely
desirable, a woman whose charm must irradiate all the life of a man, and
touch its commonplaces into magic.

He noted the sheen of her red-brown hair, and how gracefully one of its
heavy ringlets coiled upon her slender, milk-white neck. She wore a gown
of shimmering grey silk, and a scarlet rose, fresh-gathered, was pinned
at her breast like a splash of blood. Always thereafter when he thought
of her it was as he saw her at that moment, as never, I think, until
that moment had he seen her.

In silence they paced on a little way into the green shade. Then she
paused and faced him.

"You said something of a message, sir," she reminded him, thus betraying
some of her impatience.

He fingered the ringlets of his periwig, a little embarrassed how to
deliver himself, considering how he should begin. "He desired me," he
said at last, "to give you a message that should prove to you that there
is still something left in him of the unfortunate gentleman that...
that.., for which once you knew him."

"That is not now necessary," said she very gravely. He misunderstood
her, of course, knowing nothing of the enlightenment that yesterday had
come to her.

"I think..., nay, I know that you do him an injustice," said he.

Her hazel eyes continued to regard him.

"If you will deliver the message, it may enable me to judge."

To him, this was confusing. He did not immediately answer. He found that
he had not sufficiently considered the terms he should employ, and the
matter, after all, was of an exceeding delicacy, demanding delicate
handling. It was not so much that he was concerned to deliver a message
as to render it a vehicle by which to plead his own cause. Lord Julian,
well versed in the lore of womankind and usually at h