Quita exclaimed. "As they go on they
meet with grisly portents, the track gets steeper, and they are afraid.
But by that time it is 'too steep for hill-mounting, and too late for
cost-counting; the down-hill path is easy, but there's no turning
back.'"

Honor gave a little shiver.

"It's a wonderful bit of work," she said. "But is it always the man
who leads up, and the woman who leads down, Quita?"

"No. By no manner of means! I happened to see it so in those two
instances. Probably the sainted Christina saw it the other way
round.--But come and sit in Eldred's chair now, and let's get back to
realities."

"Realities? Why, my dear, your pictures touch the height and depth of
the biggest realities. I never knew you did that sort of thing."

"I don't as a rule. But those poems possessed me."

"Well, I can only say, go on and do more."

"I will . . if I can." And gently pushing Honor into the chair, she
settled herself on the carpet, and flung an arm over her friend's knee.
"It's high time I started work again. I've been idling far too long."

Honor smiled. "Don't be in a hurry to put an end to it, dear. It's
one of the divinest and most profitable kinds of idling you will ever
know. You are building up your future in these first months together."

Quita's sigh was a little anxious, though not sad.

"Are we? Well, I hope we've got the foundations right," she said,
looking thoughtfully up into the other's face. Something in its veiled
brilliance caught her attention, and bent her flexible mind in another
direction. "Do you know, Honor," she went on, "you've blossomed out
amazingly just lately. Your eyes are shining like two stars, as if you
had some heavenly secret hidden behind them."

"It's an open secret, and a very human one!" Honor answered, smiling.
"You are well on the way to discovering it for yourself."

With a low sound, Quita captured the hand lying near her own.

"Oh, you utter woman!" she murmured. "Is it still so beautiful . . .
after three years?"

Honor's colour deepened. "It's more beautiful. Much more beautiful.
Because now . . there are two of them."

There was a moment of silence, while Quita fidgeted with the great
square sapphire on her friend's wedding-finger.

"You'll think me dreadful," she said at last. "But I'm not quite sure
that I see the logic of that. For the present, at all events, I only
want Eldred, and these . . my spirit children," she indicated h