ue her. For
she was adorable when teased--especially in the beginning of their
acquaintance, before she had found out that it was a habit of his--and
her bright confusion always delighted him into further mischief.

"But I wasn't a bit worried," he continued; "you had him so firmly
around the neck. Besides, what horse or man could resist such a pleading
pair of arms around the neck?"

"What you saw," she said, flushing up, "is exactly the way I shall do
any pleading with the two animals you mention."

"Spur and curb and thrash us? Oh, my!"

"Not if you're bridle-wise, Captain Selwyn," she returned sweetly. "And
you know you always are. And sometimes"--she crossed her crop and looked
around at him reflectively--"_sometimes_, do you know, I am almost
afraid that you are so very, very good, that perhaps you are becoming
almost goody-good."

"_What_!" he exclaimed indignantly; but his only answer was her head
thrown back and a ripple of enchanting laughter.

Later she remarked: "It's just as Nina says, after all, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," he replied suspiciously; "what?"

"That Gerald isn't really very wicked, but he likes to have us think
so. It's a sign of extreme self-consciousness, isn't it," she added
innocently, "when a man is afraid that a woman thinks he is very, very
good?"

"That," he said, "is the limit. I'm going to ride by myself."

Her pleasure in Selwyn's society had gradually become such genuine
pleasure, her confidence in his kindness so unaffectedly sincere, that,
insensibly, she had fallen into something of his manner of
badinage--especially since she realised how much amusement he found in
her own smiling confusion when unexpectedly assailed. Also, to her
surprise, she found that he could be plagued very easily, though she did
not quite dare to at first, in view of his impressive years and
experience.

But once goaded to it, she was astonished to find how suddenly it seemed
to readjust their personal relations--years and experience falling from
his shoulders like a cloak which had concealed a man very nearly her own
age; years and experience adding themselves to her, and at least an inch
to her stature to redress the balance between them.

It had amused him immensely as he realised the subtle change; and it
pleased him, too, because no man of thirty-five cares to be treated _en
grandpere_ by a girl of nineteen, even if she has not yet worn the
polish from her first pair of high-heeled sh