hing."

"Pretty much, if I set my mind to it. It is astonishing how things'll
come round your way if you keep on thinking and willing them so."

"Have you always got everything you wanted?" He had been looking off
into the grounds through the open window. Now he turned slowly upon her.

"So far I have got everything I set my mind to get. Little things don't
count. You lose them sometimes because you want to work at something
else; sometimes because, as in cards, you are throwing a few away to
save the whole game."

He looked at her, as she thought, curiously. In his mind he was
wondering if she knew that he had made up his mind to marry her. She was
suddenly made aware of the masterfulness of his spirit, which might, she
knew, be applied to herself.

"Let us go into the grounds," he added, all at once. Soon after, in
the shade of the trees, she broke in upon the thread of their casual
conversation. "A few moments ago," she murmured, "you said: 'One life is
about enough for most of us.' Then you added a disparaging remark about
memory. Well, that doesn't seem like your usual point of view--more like
that of Mr. Pride; but not so plaintive, of course. Pray do smoke,"
she added, as, throwing back his coat, he exposed some cigars in his
waistcoat pocket. "I am sure you always smoke after lunch."

He took out a cigar, cut off the end, and put it in his mouth. But he
did not light it. Then he glanced up at her with a grave quizzical look
as though wondering what would be the effect of his next words, and a
smile played at his lips.

"What I meant was this. I think we get enough out of our life to last
us for centuries. It's all worth doing from the start, no matter what
it is: working, fighting, marching and countermarching, plotting and
counterplotting, backing your friends and hating your foes, playing
big games and giving others a chance to, standing with your hand on the
lynch-pin, or pulling your head safe out of the hot-pot. But I don't
think it is worth doing twice. The interest wouldn't be fresh. For men
and women and life, with a little different dress, are the same as they
always were; and there's only the same number of passions working now,
as at the beginning. I want to live life up to the hilt; because it is
all new as I go on; but never twice."

"Indeed?" She looked at him earnestly for a moment, and then added: "I
should think you would have seen lost chances; and doing things a second
time might do t