the sacred fires at his earliest opportunity. The two talked chiefly of
the people they met, and Frank thrilled with admiration at his wife's
gentle judgment of everybody.

"The true thing, absolutely the true thing," he said; and he was
conscious, too, that her instincts were right and searching, for once or
twice he saw her face chill a little when they met one or two men whose
reputations as chevaliers des dames were pronounced. These men had had
one or two confusing minutes with Lali in their time.

"How splendidly you ride!" he said, as he came up swiftly to her, after
having chatted for a moment with Edward Lambert. "You sit like wax, and
so entirely easy."

"Thank you," she said. "I suppose I really like it too well to ride
badly, and then I began young on horses not so good as Musket here--
bareback, too!" she added, with a little soft irony.

He thought--she did not, however--that she was referring to that first
letter he sent home to his people, when he consigned her, like any other
awkward freight, to their care. He flushed to his eyes. It cut him
deep, but her eyes only had a distant, dreamy look which conveyed nothing
of the sting in her words. Like most men, he had a touch of vanity too,
and he might have resented the words vaguely, had he not remembered his
talk with his mother an hour before.

She had begged him to have patience, she had made him promise that he
would not in any circumstance say an ungentle or bitter thing, that he
would bide the effort of constant devotion, and his love of the child.
Especially must he try to reach her through love of the child.