ce
softened to a smile that hovered in the eyes an appreciable time before
it reached his lips.

"_A la bonheur_!" she said, smiling back at him. "We will break our
journey here. You can tether 'Modestina' to that stump. I must do a
rough sketch of this, and put in notes for colouring, while you sit
beside me and smoke, and talk. When it's complete, I'll present it to
you as a memento of to-day. Will that suit you?"

"Rather!"

He lifted her from the saddle, in defiance of her laughing protest,
and, holding her at arm's length, looked long and steadily into her
eyes, as though he would reach and capture, by force of will, the
elusive spirit that lived in their depths.

It was in these rare moments of revelation that Quita was troubled by a
disconcerting sense of exchanging false coin for gold. She tried to
free herself from his grasp; and the colour deepened in her cheeks.

"Eldred,--let me go!" she said, with something less than her wonted
assurance. "It frightens me when you look right into me like that."

"Frightens you? Dearest, . . . what nonsense!" But for once he
disregarded her behest.

"It's not nonsense. It makes me see too clearly the chained-up forces
hidden under that surface quietness of yours. I think you might be
rather terrible if they ever broke loose."

He laughed abruptly, and let her go.

"I keep them chained up, I promise you: and they are never likely to do
you any harm. Now, begin upon your picture, and don't alarm yourself
about nothing."

She watched him thoughtfully as he led "Modestina" away, and tethered
her to a pine stump. It needed small discernment to perceive that the
equitable poise of his character rested upon the noiseless conviction
that he was a man, and a gentleman: and it seemed to her that she did
well to feel proud of her husband.

With which satisfying conviction she settled herself upon a slab of a
rock, whipped out the sketch-book, that hung permanently in a flat
leather bag at her waist, and plunged headlong into her picture. For
in her case, impression and expression were almost simultaneous: the
most distinctive quality of her work being the rapidity and certainty
with which she produced her effects.

Lenox, returning, extended his firmly-knit length of figure on the
sloping ground near by, and flung aside his cap; thus revealing more
clearly the rugged contour of his head, and the black hair whose
obstinate ripple no amount of brushing could