it merely because he tells funny
stories; the humour I mean is a kind of sense of the fitness of things
that keeps a man from forgetting himself. And if he hasn't humour, don't
think he can make you happy, even if his vanity doesn't show. He
can't--after the expiration of that brief period in which the vanity of
each is a holy joy to the other. Remember now!"

Curiously enough this well-intended homily had the effect of arousing in
Nancy an instant sense of loyalty to Allan. She suffered little flashes
of resentment at the thought that Clara Tremaine should seem to
depreciate one toward whom she felt herself turning with a sudden
defensive tenderness. And this, though it was clear to the level eye of
reason that Clara must have been generalising on observations made far
from Edom. But her loyal spirit was not less eager to resent an affront
because it might seem to have been aimless.

And thereafter, though never ceasing to wonder, Nancy was won. Her
consent, at length, went to him in her own volume of Browning, a pink
rose shut in upon "A Woman's Last Word"--its petals bruised against the
verses:

"What so false as truth is,
False to thee?
Where the serpent's tooth is,
Shun the tree.

"Where the apple reddens,
Never pry--
Lest we lose our Edens,
Eve and I.

"Be a god and hold me
With a charm!
Be a man and fold me
With thine arm!"

That was a moment of sweetness, of utter rest, of joyous peace--fighting
no longer.

A little while and he was before her, proud as a conquerer may be--glad
as a lover should.

"I always knew it, Nance--you _had_ to give in."

Then as she drooped in his arms, a mere fragrant, pulsing, glad
submission--

"You have _always_ pleased me, Nancy. I know I shall never regret my
choice."

And Nancy, scarce hearing, wondered happily on his breast.

CHAPTER IV

THE WINNING OF BROWETT

A thoughtful Pagan once reported dignity to consist not in possessing
honours, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. It is a theory
fit to console multitudes. Edom's young rector was not only consoled by
it, he was stimulated. To his ardent nature, the consciousness of
deserving honour was the first vital step toward gaining it. Those
things that he believed himself to deserve he forthwith subjected to the
magnetic rays of his desire: Knowing with the inborn certainty of the
successful, that they must finally yield to such silent, coercing
inf