and his companion wandered by the river side to a spot where a group of
magnolias sheltered them from the open lawn, and where there were some
rustic chairs close to the balustrade which protected the parapet. In
this spot, which was a kind of island, divided from the rest of the
grounds by the intervening road, they found themselves quite alone, and
in the midst of a summer stillness which was broken only by the low,
lazy ripple of the tide running seawards. The lights of Richmond looked
far away, and the little town with its variety of levels had an Italian
air in the distance.

From the ballroom, faint and fitful, came the music of a waltz.

'I'm afraid I've brought you too far,' said Don Gomez.

'On the contrary, it is a relief to get away from the lights and the
people. How delicious this river is! I was brought up on the shores of a
lake; but after all a lake is horribly tame. Its limits are always
staring one in the face. There is no room for one's imagination to
wander. Now a river like this suggests an infinity of possibilities,
drifting on and on and on into undiscovered regions, by ever-varying
shores. I feel to-night as if I should like to step into that little
boat yonder,' pointing to a light skiff bobbing gently up and down with
the tide, at the bottom of a flight of steps, 'and let the stream take
me wherever it chose.'

'If I could but go with you,' said Gomez, in that deep and musical tone
which made the commonest words seem melody, 'I would ask for neither
compass nor rudder. What could it matter whither the boat took me? There
is no place under the stars which would not be a paradise--with you.'

'Please don't make a dreamy aspiration the occasion for a compliment,'
exclaimed Lesbia, lightly. 'What I said was so silly that I don't wonder
you thought it right to say something just a little sillier. But
moonlight and running water have a curious effect upon me; and I, who am
the most prosaic among women, become ridiculously sentimental.'

'I cannot believe that you are prosaic.'

'I assure you it is perfectly true. I am of the earth, earthy; a woman
of the world, in my first season, ambitious, fond of pleasure, vain,
proud, exacting, all those things which I am told a woman ought not to
be.'

'You pain me when you so slander yourself; and I shall make it the
business of my life to find out how much truth there is in that
self-slander. For my own part I do not believe a word of it; but as it
i