which gave him a peculiar, soft, proud look. I used
to tell him that he'd never make a soldier! 'Oh!' he'd answer, 'that'll
be all right when the time comes! He believed in a kind of luck that was
to do everything for him, when the time came. One day he came in as
I was giving Eilie her lesson. This was the first time they saw each
other. After that he came more often, and sometimes stayed to dinner
with us. I won't deny, sir, that I was glad to welcome him; I thought it
good for Eilie. Can there be anything more odious," he burst out, "than
such a self-complacent blindness? There are people who say, 'Poor man,
he had such faith!' Faith, sir! Conceit! I was a fool--in this world one
pays for folly....

"The summer came; and one Saturday in early June, Eilie, I, and
Francis--I won't tell you his other name--went riding. The night had
been wet; there was no dust, and presently the sun came out--a glorious
day! We rode a long way. About seven o'clock we started back-slowly, for
it was still hot, and there was all the cool of night before us. It
was nine o'clock when we came to Richmond Park. A grand place, Richmond
Park; and in that half-light wonderful, the deer moving so softly, you
might have thought they were spirits. We were silent too--great trees
have that effect on me....

"Who can say when changes come? Like a shift of the wind, the old
passes, the new is on you. I am telling you now of a change like that.
Without a sign of warning, Eilie put her horse into a gallop. 'What are
you doing?' I shouted. She looked back with a smile, then he dashed past
me too. A hornet might have stung them both: they galloped over fallen
trees, under low hanging branches, up hill and down. I had to watch that
madness! My horse was not so fast. I rode like a demon; but fell far
behind. I am not a man who takes things quietly. When I came up with
them at last, I could not speak for rage. They were riding side by side,
the reins on the horses' necks, looking in each other's faces. 'You
should take care,' I said. 'Care!' she cried; 'life is not all taking
care!' My anger left me. I dropped behind, as grooms ride behind their
mistresses... Jealousy! No torture is so ceaseless or so black.... In
those minutes a hundred things came up in me--a hundred memories, true,
untrue, what do I know? My soul was poisoned. I tried to reason with
myself. It was absurd to think such things! It was unmanly.... Even
if it were true, one should try to be