red after the most strenuous
exertion. He never slacked for a moment or seemed to have a moment to
spare till the day was done. He was generally late for meals, and always
raced through them at a speed that Avery was powerless to emulate.

He was late on the day of Ina Rose's wedding, so late that Avery, who had
dressed in good time and was lying on the sofa in her room, began to
wonder if he had after all abandoned the idea of going. But she presently
heard him race into his own room, and immediately there came the active
patter of Victor's feet as he waited upon him.

She lay still, listening, wishing that the wedding were over, morbidly
dreading the heat and crush and excitement which she knew awaited her and
to which she felt utterly unequal.

A quarter of an hour passed, then impetuously, without preliminary, her
door opened and Piers stood on the threshold. He had the light behind
him, for Avery had lowered the blinds, and so seeing him she was
conscious of a sudden thrill of admiration. For he stood before her like
a prince. She had never seen him look more handsome, more patrician, more
tragically like that woman in the picture-frame downstairs who smiled so
perpetually upon them both.

He came to her with his light, athletic tread, stooped, and lifted her
bodily in his arms. He held her a moment before he set her on her feet,
and then in his hot, fierce way he kissed her.

"You beautiful ghost!" he said.

She leaned against him, breathing rather hard. "I wish--I wish we needn't
go," she said.

"Why?" said Piers.

He held her to him, gazing down at her with his eyes of fiery possession
that always made her close her own.

"Because--because it's so hot," she said quiveringly. "There will be no
one I know there. And I--and I--"

"That's just why you are going," he broke in. "Don't you know it will be
your introduction to the County? You've got to find your footing, Avery.
I'm not going to have my wife overlooked by anyone."

"Oh, my dear," she said, with a faint laugh, "I don't care two straws
about the County. They've seen me once already, most of them,--in a ditch
and covered with mud. If they want to renew the acquaintance they can
come and call."

He kissed her again with lips that crushed her own. "We won't stay longer
than we can help," he said. "You ought to go out more, you know. It isn't
good for you to stay in this gloomy old vault all day. We will really get
to work and make it more habit