h gave me my standing with her.

"Mrs Fyne is absurd. She's an excellent woman, but really you could
not be expected to throw away your chance of life simply that she might
cherish a good opinion of your memory. That would be excessive."

"It was not of my life that I was thinking while Captain Anthony was--
was speaking to me," said Flora de Barral with an effort.

I told her that she was wrong then. She ought to have been thinking of
her life, and not only of her life but of the life of the man who was
speaking to her too. She let me finish, then shook her head
impatiently.

"I mean--death."

"Well," I said, "when he stood before you there, outside the cottage, he
really stood between you and that. I have it out of your own mouth.
You can't deny it."

"If you will have it that he saved my life, then he has got it. It was
not for me. Oh no! It was not for me that I--It was not fear! There!"
She finished petulantly: "And you may just as well know it."

She hung her head and swung the parasol slightly to and fro. I thought
a little.

"Do you know French, Miss de Barral?" I asked.

She made a sign with her head that she did, but without showing any
surprise at the question and without ceasing to swing her parasol.

"Well then, somehow or other I have the notion that Captain Anthony is
what the French call _un galant homme_. I should like to think he is
being treated as he deserves."

The form of her lips (I could see them under the brim of her hat) was
suddenly altered into a line of seriousness. The parasol stopped
swinging.

"I have given him what he wanted--that's myself," she said without a
tremor and with a striking dignity of tone.

Impressed by the manner and the directness of the words, I hesitated for
a moment what to say. Then made up my mind to clear up the point.

"And you have got what you wanted? Is that it?"

The daughter of the egregious financier de Barral did not answer at once
this question going to the heart of things. Then raising her head and
gazing wistfully across the street noisy with the endless transit of
innumerable bargains, she said with intense gravity:

"He has been most generous."

I was pleased to hear these words. Not that I doubted the infatuation
of Roderick Anthony, but I was pleased to hear something which proved
that she was sensible and open to the sentiment of gratitude which in
this case was significant. In the face of man's desire a girl is