rn away the
trappings of convention that had swathed it.

He attracted her strongly. He stood for a broad freedom, and her revolt
against the dependence in which she lived was pointed by his contempt
for the dull, easy, effortless life of the big country house. Her mind
swayed towards him as she thought of what he had to offer her in
exchange--adventure in unknown lands; glory, perhaps not wholly
reflected, for there had been women explorers before, and her strong,
healthy youth made her the physical equal of any of them; comradeship in
place of subjection. She weighed none of these things consciously; she
simply desired them.

There came to her the echo of her brother's speech as she had come up
the stairs: "And let us see what he can do." He stood before her in his
rugged strength, not very well dressed, his greying head held upright,
his nostrils slightly dilated, his keen eyes looking out on the world
without a trace of self-consciousness; and beside him stood Dick in his
smart clothes and his smoothed down hair, coolly ignoring all the big
things the man had done, and proposing to hold over his opinion of him
till he saw whether he could snap off a gun quickly enough to bring down
a high pheasant or a driven partridge. If he could pass that test he
would be accepted without further question as "a good fellow." His other
achievements, or perhaps more accurately the kind of renown they had
brought him, would be set against his lack of the ordinary gentleman's
upbringing. If he could not, he would still be something of an outsider
though all the world should acclaim him. Dick's careless speech--she
called it stupid--affected her strangely. It lifted her suitor out of
the ruck, and made him bulk bigger.

She got up from her bed and took her seat by the open window, according
to precedent. She had seen herself, during the evening, sitting there
looking out on to the moonlit garden, asking herself quietly, "What am I
going to do?" weighing the pros and cons, stiffening her mind, and her
courage. And she tried now to come to a decision, but could not come
anywhere near to laying the foundation of one. She had not the least
idea what she was going to do, nor could she even discover what she
wanted to do.

She got up and walked about the room, but that did not help her. She
knelt down and said her prayers out of a little well-worn book of
devotions, and made them long ones. But it was nothing more than
repeating words