tree. Down there! When do we go? The shudder in that tree is the air
exchanging between Life and Death--the ghosts going and coming: it's on
the border line. I just felt the creep. I think you did. The reason
is--there is always a material reason--that you were warm, and a bit of
chill breeze took you as you gazed; while for my part I was imagining at
that very moment what of all possible causes might separate us, and I
acknowledged that death could do the trick. But death, my love, is far
from us two!'

'Does she look as grimmish as she does in the photograph?' said Clotilde.

'Who? the baroness?' Alvan laughed. The baroness was not so easily
defended from a girl as from her husband, it appeared. 'She is the best
of comrades, best of friends. She has her faults; may not relish the
writ announcing her final deposition, but be you true to me, and as true
as she has unfailingly been to me, she will be to you. That I can
promise. My poor Lucie! She is winter, if you will. It is not the
winter of the steppes; you may compare her to winter in a noble country;
a fine landscape of winter. The outlines of her face . . . . She has
a great brain. How much I owe that woman for instruction! You meet now
and then men who have the woman in them without being womanized; they are
the pick of men. And the choicest women are those who yield not a
feather of their womanliness for some amount of manlike strength. And
she is one; man's brain, woman's heart. I thought her unique till I
heard of you. And how do I stand between you two? She has the only
fault you can charge me with; she is before me in time, as I am before
you. Shall I spoil you as she spoilt me? No, no! Obedience to a boy
is the recognition of the heir-apparent, and I respect the salique law as
much as I love my love. I do not offer obedience to a girl, but succour,
support. You will not rule me, but you will invigorate, and if you are