s much force
into the controlling of our own thoughts as we put into acting up to a
standard of public behavior, what wonderful creatures we should become!

Here were these two human beings--young and strong and full of passion,
playing each a part with an art as great as any displayed at the Comedie
Francaise! And all for reasons suggested by civilization!--when nature
would have solved the difficulty in the twinkling of an eye!

Michael spent a breakfast hour in purgatory. It was plain to be seen
that Henry expected him to show some desire to go fishing, or to want
some other sport which required solitude, or only the company of Madame
Imogen--and his afternoon looked as if it were not going to be a thing
of joy. The result of civilization then made him say:

"May I take out that boat I saw in the little harbor after breakfast,
Mrs. Howard? I must have some real exercise. Two days in a motor is too
much."

And his hostess graciously accorded him a permission, while her heart
sank--at least she experienced that unpleasant physical sensation of
heaviness somewhere in the diaphragm which poets have christened
heart-sinking! She knew it was quite the right thing for him to have
done,--and yet she wished fervently that they could have spent another
hour like the one in the turret summer-house.

Henry was radiant--and as Michael went off through the postern and down
to the little harbor where the boats lay, he asked in fine language what
were his beloved's wishes for the afternoon?

Sabine felt pettish, she wanted to snap out that she did not care a
single sou what they did, but she controlled herself and answered
sweetly that she would take him all over the chateau and ask his opinion
and advice about some further improvements she meant to make.

They strolled first to the crenellated wall of the courtyard along which
there was a high walk from which you looked down upon the boat-house and
the little jetty--this wall made the fourth side of the courtyard, and
with the gate tower, and the concierge's tower across the causeway, and
part of the garden elevation, was the very oldest of the whole chateau,
and dated from early feudal times.

They leaned upon the stone and looked down at the sea.

"There are only a very few days in the year that Minne-ha-ha ever comes
out of her shed," Sabine told him, pointing to the boat-house. "You
cannot imagine what the wind is here--even now it may get up in a few
moments on this