ng they were dined or dined others. Bath
House was closed, but the island was always gay until the dead heat of
summer came and hurricanes threatened but rarely thinned the heavy
air, when although tropical storms were frequent, the rain was as hot
as the earth.

Even then Warner and Anne had a companionship of which they never
tired, and there was a new interest in watching the torn Caribbean and
the furious driving of the wind among the trees. They could always
exercise on the long veranda, or play games within doors.

Then, for a time, this perfect state of bliss was threatened. Anne was
thrown from her horse, frightened by a flash of lightning, as, caught
in a storm, they were riding full speed for home, and was in agony and
peril for several days, confined to her bed for a fortnight longer.
There were the best of doctors on so wealthy an island as Nevis, and
she recovered completely, although forced to shroud not the least of
her desires. But the wild despair of Warner while she was in danger,
and his following devotion, his inspired ingenuity in diverting her
during her term of sadness and protest, made her feel that to cherish
disappointment even in her inmost soul would be flying in the face of
providence; her spirits struggled up to their normal high level, and
once more she was the happiest of women. It was another fortnight
before she could leave the house, but the languor was a new and
pleasant sensation and not unbecoming the weather. Warner read
aloud instead of to himself, and they wondered that they had never
discovered this firm subtle link in comradeship before. The rainy
summer is the winter of the tropics, and they felt the same delight in
hiding themselves within their own four walls that others so often
experience in a sterner clime when the elements forbid social
intercourse.

CHAPTER XXII

Anne could never recall just when it was she discovered, or rather
divined, that her husband was once more a dual being. A vague sense of
change cohered into fact when she realised that for some time he had
been reading aloud and pursuing an undercurrent of independent
thought. His devotion increased, were that possible, but the time came
when he no longer could conceal that he was often absent in mind and
depressed in spirit. He took to long rambles in which she could not
accompany him at that season while so far from robust, smilingly
excusing himself by reminding her that being so much more vigo