that had caused him to set out, but by a more
potent and saner spirit of almost boyish vagabondage that bade him keep
on.

Myrna! He smiled now. He was a fool to have spoilt the last few days
for himself just because he had not seen her! Let her have her way for
a while, if it pleased her! No doubt she was trying to discipline him!
It was delightful, that! Discipline Jean Laparde! It was he who would
play the role of disciplinarian before he was through--not she! He
loved her, wanted her--and, by Heaven, he was Jean Laparde! And what
Jean Laparde wanted was his! She belonged to him, and his she would
be, and no other man's! Paul Valmain, eh? Next time he would deal
with Paul Valmain, and not with Myrna. The poor fool--who ranted and
raved and screamed like a cockatoo on the floor of the Chamber of
Deputies, and dreamed that it was impassioned eloquence! It would be
well for Paul Valmain to take another road than that of Jean Laparde!
The poor fool--that did not know the power of Jean Laparde! He held
Paul Valmain, as he held every other man in France, between his thumb
and forefinger--to pinch, if he saw fit. A whisper in the ear of this
one and that, and Paul Valmain was as dead politically as though he had
never been born.

And now Jean threw back his head and laughed boisterously. All that
was no exaggeration; it was literally true. He even held Myrna in
exactly the same position. He could break her socially--as readily as
he could break a twig from a tree! It was even ludicrous, it was so
simple. Imagine Myrna in such a state! Imagine what would happen if
he let it be known that Jean Laparde would attend no function at which
Mademoiselle Bliss was a guest! It was too funny, too droll! And she
had dreams perhaps of disciplining Jean Laparde!

His face flushed a little. She was his! He had felt those warm, rich
lips against his own! He would feel them there again a thousand
times--ay, and soon again! He would not wait this time--as he had
waited, fool that he had been, before! But for a day or so, if it
pleased her to ride upon a high horse, let her go fast and
furious--afterwards, that was quite another matter. Afterwards, those
lips would be his again, that glorious, pulsing body would be in his
arms again--and in the meantime--here was a great level stretch of road
before him--and the day was before him--and the to-morrow could take
care of itself!

And so Jean rode far that day; a