?" he demanded, coming slowly toward her in the
cul de sac.

She shook her head, smiling the while.

"I'll be merciful," he said. "It is five steps, until I reach
you--One!--Will you yield?"

"No!"

"Two!--will you yield?"

"No!"

"Three!--will you yield?"

"No!"

"Four----"

Quick as thought, she dropped one hand on the back of the davenport;
there was a flash of slippers, lingerie and silk, and she was across
and racing for the door, now fair before her, leaving him only the echo
of a mocking laugh.

"Five!" she counted, tauntingly, from the hall. "Why don't you
continue, sir?"

"I stop with four," he said. "I'll be good for to-night, Elaine--you
need have no further fear."

She tossed her head ever so slightly, while a bantering look came into
her eyes.

"I'm not much afraid of you, now--nor any time," she answered. "But you
have more courage than I would have thought, Colin--decidedly more!"

XII

ONE LEARNED IN THE LAW

It was evening, when Croyden returned to Hampton--an evening which
contained no suggestion of the Autumn he had left behind him on the
Eastern Shore. It was raw, and damp, and chill, with the presage of
winter in its cold; the leaves were almost gone from the trees, the
blackening hand of frost was on flower and shrubbery. As he passed up
the dreary, deserted street, the wind was whistling through the
branches over head, and moaning around the houses like spirits of the
damned.

He turned in at Clarendon--shivering a little at the prospect. He was
beginning to appreciate what a winter spent under such conditions
meant, where one's enjoyments and recreations are circumscribed by the
bounds of comparatively few houses and few people--people, he
suspected, who could not understand what he missed, of the hurly-burly
of life and amusement, even if they tried. Their ways were sufficient
for them; they were eminently satisfied with what they had; they could
not comprehend dissatisfaction in another, and would have no patience
with it.

He could imagine the dismalness of Hampton, when contrasted with the
brightness of Northumberland. The theatres, the clubs, the constant
dinners, the evening affairs, the social whirl with all that it
comprehended, compared with an occasional dinner, a rare party,
interminable evenings spent, by his own fireside, alone! Alone! Alone!

To be sure, Miss Carrington, and Miss Borden, and Miss Lashiel, and
Miss Tilghman, would be available, w