e stream of time, a rill
of the Greek sense of proportion, of fitness, of beauty, which is
indeed but proportion embodied, the perfect adaptation of means to
ends. He had perceived, more clearly than she could have appreciated
it at that time, the undeveloped elements of discord between Rena and
her former life. He had imagined her lending grace and charm to his
own household. Still another motive, a purely psychological one, had
more or less consciously influenced him. He had no fear that the
family secret would ever be discovered,--he had taken his precautions
too thoroughly, he thought, for that; and yet he could not but feel, at
times, that if peradventure--it was a conceivable hypothesis--it should
become known, his fine social position would collapse like a house of
cards. Because of this knowledge, which the world around him did not
possess, he had felt now and then a certain sense of loneliness; and
there was a measure of relief in having about him one who knew his
past, and yet whose knowledge, because of their common interest, would
not interfere with his present or jeopardize his future. For he had
always been, in a figurative sense, a naturalized foreigner in the
world of wide opportunity, and Rena was one of his old compatriots,
whom he was glad to welcome into the populous loneliness of his adopted
country.

VIII

THE COURTSHIP

In a few weeks the echoes of the tournament died away, and Rena's life
settled down into a pleasant routine, which she found much more
comfortable than her recent spectacular prominence. Her queenship,
while not entirely forgiven by the ladies of the town, had gained for
her a temporary social prominence. Among her own sex, Mrs. Newberry
proved a warm and enthusiastic friend. Rumor whispered that the lively
young widow would not be unwilling to console Warwick in the loneliness
of the old colonial mansion, to which his sister was a most excellent
medium of approach. Whether this was true or not it is unnecessary to
inquire, for it is no part of this story, except as perhaps indicating
why Mrs. Newberry played the part of the female friend, without whom no
woman is ever launched successfully in a small and conservative
society. Her brother's standing gave her the right of social entry;
the tournament opened wide the door, and Mrs. Newberry performed the
ceremony of introduction. Rena had many visitors during the month
following the tournament, and might have made h