rive never do." And it was Morna's
turn to sigh.

"No, I should like it; but I have never tried."

"I'll teach you!" cried Morna at once. "What fun it will be!"

"I should enjoy it, I know. But--"

The sentence was abandoned--as was often the case in the subsequent
intercourse between Rachel Steel and Morna Woodgate. From the beginning,
Rachel was apt to be more off her guard with Morna than with any one
whom she had met during the last six months; and, from the beginning,
she was continually remembering and stopping herself in a manner that
would have irritated Morna in anybody else. But then--yet again, from
the beginning--these two were natural and immediate friends.

"You must learn," urged Morna, when she had waited some time for the
sentence which had but begun. "There are people who scorn it--or
pretend to--but I am sure you are not one. It may not be the finest
form of exercise, but wait till you fly down these hills with your feet
on the rests! And then you are so independent; no horses to consider, no
coachman to consult; only your own bones and your own self! The
independence alone--"

"May be the very thing for you, Mrs. Woodgate, but it wouldn't do for my
wife!"

Mr. Steel had stolen a silent march upon them, on the soft, smooth
grass; and now he was taking off his straw hat to Morna, and smiling
with all urbanity as he held out his hand. But Morna had seen how his
wife started at the sound of his voice, and her greeting was a little
cool.

"I meant the bicycling," he was quick enough to add; "not the
independence, of course!"

But there was something sinister in his smile, something quite sinister
and yet not unkindly, that vexed and puzzled Morna during the remainder
of her visit, which she cut somewhat short on perceiving that Mr. Steel
had apparently no intention of leaving them to their own devices after
tea. Morna, however, would have been still more puzzled, and her spirit
not less vexed, had she heard the first words between the newly married
couple after she had gone.

"What's that you have got?" asked Steel, as they turned back up the
drive, after seeing Morna to her woodland path. Rachel was still
carrying her spray of gum-leaves; he must have noticed it before, but
this was the first sign that he had done so. She said at once what it
was, and why she had pulled it from the tree.

"It took me back to Victoria; and, you know, I was born there."

Steel looked narrowly at his wife, a