habitually self-contained nature. So far, both forces were evenly
matched--so far both could play into each other's hands, for mutual aid,
mutual support against each other. Had there been aught of
selfishness--of the mere unholy desire of possession--in this man's
love, things would have been otherwise. His cool brain and consummate
judgment would have given him immeasurably the advantage--in fact, the
key of the whole situation. But it was not so. As we have said, that
love was chivalrously pure--even noble--would have been rather elevating
but for the circumstance that its indulgence meant the discounting of
another man's life.

Thus they walked, side by side, in the soft and sensuous sunshine. A
shimmer of heat rose from the ground. Far away over the rolling plains
a few cattle and horses, dotted here and there grazing, constituted the
only sign of life, and the range of wooded hills against the sky line
loomed purple and misty in the golden summer haze. If ever a land
seemed to enjoy the blessings of peace assuredly it was this fair land
here spread out around them.

They had reached another of the ostrich camps, wherein were domiciled
some eight or ten pairs of eighteen-month-old birds, which not having
yet learned the extent of their power, were as tame and docile as the
four-year-old male was savage and combative. Eustace had scattered the
contents of his colander among them, and now the two were leaning over
the gate, listlessly watching the birds feed.

"Talking of people never thinking," continued Eustace, "I don't so much
wonder at that. They haven't time, I suppose, and so lose the faculty.
They have enough to do to steer ahead in their own narrow little groves.
But what does astonish me is that if you state an obvious fact--so
obvious as to amount to a platitude--it seems to burst upon them as a
kind of wild surprise, as a kind of practical joke on wheels, ready to
start away down-hill and drag them with it to utter crash unless they
edge away from it as far as possible. You see them turn and stare at
each other, and open an amazed and gaping mouth into which you might
insert a pumpkin without them being in the least aware of it."

"As for instance?" queried Eanswyth, with a smile.

"Well--as for instance. I wonder what the effect would be upon an
ordinary dozen of sane people were I suddenly to propound the perfectly
obvious truism that life is full of surprises. I don't wonder, at
least