s lady's room.

Zara turned round like a startled fawn, and then her expression changed
to one of anger and hauteur.

He was already dressed for dinner, and held a great bunch of gardenias
in his hand. He stopped abruptly when he caught sight of the exquisite
picture she made, and he drew in his breath. He had not known hair could
be so long; he had not realized she was so beautiful. And she was his
wife!

"Darling!" he gasped, oblivious of even the maid, who had the discretion
to retire quickly to the bathroom beyond. "Darling, how beautiful you
are! You drive me perfectly mad."

Zara held on to the dressing-table and almost crouched, like a panther
ready to spring.

"How dare you come into my room like this! Go!" she said.

It was as if she had struck him. He drew back, and flung the flowers
down into the grate.

"I only came to tell you dinner was nearly ready," he said haughtily,
"and to bring you those. But I will await you in the sitting-room, when
you are dressed."

And he turned round and left through the door by which he had come.

And Zara called her maid rather sharply, and had her hair plaited and
done, and got quickly into her dress. And when she was ready she went
slowly into the sitting-room.

She found Tristram leaning upon the mantelpiece, glaring moodily into
the flames. He had stood thus for ten minutes, coming to a decision in
his mind.

He had been very angry just now, and he thought was justified; but he
knew he was passionately in love, as he had never dreamed nor imagined
he could be in the whole of his life.

Should he tell her at once about it? and implore her not to be so cold
and hard? But no, that would be degrading. After all, he had already
shown her a proof of the most reckless devotion, in asking to marry her,
after having seen her only once! And she, what had her reasons been?
They were forcible enough or she would not have consented to her uncle's
wishes before they had even ever met; and he recalled, when he had asked
her only on Thursday last if she would wish to be released, that she had
said firmly that she wished the marriage to take place. Surely she must
know that no man with any spirit would put up with such treatment as
this--to be spoken to as though he had been an impudent stranger
bursting into her room!

Then his tempestuous thoughts went back to Mimo, that foreign man whom
he had seen under her window. What if, after all, he was her lover and
that accoun