rd and stag, till his sixth year, when he is truly a hart and
has his rights of brow, bay, and tray antlers. I am skilled in the
uses of falcon-gentle, gerfalcon, saker, lanner, merlin, hobby,
goshawk, sparrow-hawk, and musket--"

Brilliana interrupted him with an impetuous gesture of command, and
Evander made an end of his display.

"Enough, enough!" she cried. "I feel like Balkis when she came to sip
wisdom from Solomon's goblet. If I question you further I may find
that, like my Lord Verulam, you have taken all knowledge for your
province. This is something uncanny in a Puritan."

Evander protested.

"Why should a man deny the arts of life because he finds strength in
the faith of the Puritans?"

"I know not why," Brilliana answered, "but so it is generally
believed among us who are not Puritans."

"There are fanatic fellows with us as in all causes," Evander
admitted, "and some, it may be, who wear moroseness to gain favor.
But these are no more than the fringe of a stout cloak. I am no
exceptional Puritan, I promise you. Colonel Cromwell himself--"

Brilliana interrupted him with a frowning imperiousness.

"Let us not talk of Colonel Cromwell," she commanded.

"I wish you would let me speak of Colonel Cromwell," Evander pleaded.
"He has long been my dear friend, and--"

"Let us not talk of Colonel Cromwell," Brilliana repeated, with a
peremptory stamp of the foot. "I want to talk of you and your curious
Puritanism. I thought you were all too hypocritically devout to have
any care for the toys and colors of life."

"To be devout is not to be hypocritical," Evander urged, gently.
"And, to speak for myself, I hope I am devout, but I do not find my
faith weakened by honorable enjoyment of honorable pleasures. Yet,
indeed, what poor accomplishments I can lay claim to--and to afford
you diversion, I have somewhat exaggerated their scope and
number--are due directly to my being a Puritan--"

"You are pleased to be paradoxical," Brilliana asserted. Evander put
the suggestion aside with a head shake.

"To my being a Puritan and to my being of your kin. When I was a boy
I learned of that kinship, learned how her marriage with a Puritan
had earned for a woman of your race the scorn, indeed the hatred of
her family, or those who should most and best have loved her."

"You do not understand how strongly those who think as we think feel
on such a matter," Brilliana urged, one-half of her spirit angry that
she w