life of the man who was
speaking to her too. She let me finish, then shook her head impatiently.

"I mean--death."

"Well," I said, "when he stood before you there, outside the cottage, he
really stood between you and that. I have it out of your own mouth. You
can't deny it."

"If you will have it that he saved my life, then he has got it. It was
not for me. Oh no! It was not for me that I--It was not fear! There!"
She finished petulantly: "And you may just as well know it."

She hung her head and swung the parasol slightly to and fro. I thought a
little.

"Do you know French, Miss de Barral?" I asked.

She made a sign with her head that she did, but without showing any
surprise at the question and without ceasing to swing her parasol.

"Well then, somehow or other I have the notion that Captain Anthony is
what the French call _un galant homme_. I should like to think he is
being treated as he deserves."

The form of her lips (I could see them under the brim of her hat) was
suddenly altered into a line of seriousness. The parasol stopped
swinging.

"I have given him what he wanted--that's myself," she said without a
tremor and with a striking dignity of tone.

Impressed by the manner and the directness of the words, I hesitated for
a moment what to say. Then made up my mind to clear up the point.

"And you have got what you wanted? Is that it?"

The daughter of the egregious financier de Barral did not answer at once
this question going to the heart of things. Then raising her head and
gazing wistfully across the street noisy with the endless transit of
innumerable bargains, she said with intense gravity:

"He has been most generous."

I was pleased to hear these words. Not that I doubted the infatuation of
Roderick Anthony, but I was pleased to hear something which proved that
she was sensible and open to the sentiment of gratitude which in this
case was significant. In the face of man's desire a girl is excusable if
she thinks herself priceless. I mean a girl of our civilization which
has established a dithyrambic phraseology for the expression of love. A
man in love will accept any convention exalting the object of his passion
and in this indirect way his passion itself. In what way the captain of
the ship _Ferndale_ gave proofs of lover-like lavishness I could not
guess very well. But I was glad she was appreciative. It is lucky that
small things please women. And it is not sill