nce of
her eyes--he detected a ring of sympathy, of feeling. Could she read
his inner thoughts, he wondered, that each hour of this day as it wore
away did but tighten the grip of the bitter desolating pain that had
closed around his heart? He watched her as she reclined there, the very
embodiment of dainty and graceful ease. He noted the stirring of each
little wave of gold-brown hair as it caressed her forehead to the breath
of the soft sea wind; the quick lifting of the lashes revealing the deep
blue of the soulful eyes, so free and frank and fearless as they met
his; the rich tint of the smooth skin, glowing with the kiss of the air
and sun; every curve, too, of the mobile expressive lips; and the
self-restraint he was forced to put upon himself became something
superhuman. And it was their last day together! She, for her part, was
thinking, "John Ames is a fool, but the most self-controlled fool I ever
met. How I shall miss him! Yes, indeed, how I shall miss him!" Aloud
she said--

"I wonder when _we_ shall be going up-country?"

"Never, I predict," was the somewhat decisive rejoinder.

Nidia raised herself on one elbow. "You seem pretty certain as to
that," she said, "so certain that I begin to think the wish is father to
the thought."

"Thank you."

"There, there, don't be cross. I am only teasing you. I can be an
awful tease at times, can't I? Ask Susie if I can't--if you haven't
found it out already, that is."

The mischief had all left her voice, the laughing eyes were soft and
sympathetic again. He laughed, too, but somewhat sadly.

"Because things up there are not over bright, and are likely to be less
so. The cattle is all dying off from this new disease--rinderpest. The
natives have never been thoroughly conquered, and there are still plenty
of them. The loss of their cattle will make them desperate, and
therefore dangerous. The outlook is gloomy all round."

"Oh, but you will be able to put things right when you get back."

John Ames stared, as well he might. Either she meant what she said or
she did not. In the first event, she had a higher opinion of him than
ever he had dreamed; in the second, the remark was silly to the last
degree; and silliness was a fault, any trace of which he had not as yet
discovered in Nidia Commerell.

"You cannot really mean that," he said. "If so, you must be under an
entire misconception as to my position. I am only one of several. We
each