inferiors, that
with regard to such matters, as well as others of no moment, the lady--Ah,
but for her to take the initiative would provoke the conclusion--as
revolting to her as unavoidable to him--that she judged herself his
superior--so greatly his superior as to be absolved from the necessity of
behaving to him on the ordinary footing of man and woman. What a ground to
start from with a husband! The idea was hateful to her. She tried the
argument that such a procedure arrogated merely a superiority in social
standing, but it made her recoil from it the more. He was so immeasurably
her superior that the poor little advantage on her side vanished like a
candle in the sunlight, and she laughed herself to scorn. "Fancy," she
laughed, "a midge, on the strength of having wings, condescending to offer
marriage to a horse!" It would argue the assumption of equality in other
and more important things than rank, or at least the confidence that her
social superiority not only counterbalanced the difference, but left
enough over to her credit to justify her initiative. And what a miserable
fiction that money and position had a right to the first move before
greatness of living fact--that _having_ had the precedence of being! That
Malcolm should imagine such _her_ judgment! No, let all go--let himself go
rather! And then he might not choose to accept her munificent offer! Or
worse, far worse, what if he should be tempted by rank and wealth, and,
accepting her, be shorn of his glory and proved of the ordinary human type
after all? A thousand times rather would she see the bright particular
star blazing unreachable above her. What! would she carry it about a
cinder in her pocket? And yet if he _could_ be "turned to a coal," why
should she go on worshiping him? Alas! the offer itself was the only test
severe enough to try him withal, and if he proved a cinder she would by
the very use of the test be bound to love, honor and obey her cinder. She
could not well reject him for accepting her, neither could she marry him
if he rose grandly superior to her temptations. No! he could be nothing to
her nearer than the bright particular star.

Thus went the thoughts to and fro in the minds of each. Neither could see
the way. Both feared the risk of loss: neither could hope greatly for
gain.

CHAPTER LXII.

THE DUNE.

Having put Kelpie up, and fed and bedded her, Malcolm took his way to the
Seaton, full of busily anxious thought.