ested my bride and found her half my heart;
therefore she passes the examination with the baroness.'

They left the tree behind them.

'We will take good care not to return this way again,' said Alvan,
without looking back. 'That tree belongs to a plantation of the under
world; its fellows grow in the wood across Acheron, and that tree has
looked into the ghastliness of the flood and seen itself. Hecate and
Hermes know about it. Phoebus cannot light it. That tree stands for Death
blooming. We think it sinister, but down there it is a homely 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 p