as making of himself,
sitting her horse motionless, pretty eyes bent on his--an almost
faultless though slight figure, smooth as a girl's yet faintly instinct
with that charm of ripened adolescence just short of maturity.

And, slowly, under her clear gaze, a confused comprehension began to
stir in him--at first only a sort of chagrin, then something more--a
consciousness of his own heaviness of intellect and grossness of
figure--the fatness of mind and body which had developed so rapidly
within the last two years.

There she sat, as slim and pretty and fresh as ever; and only two years
ago he had been mentally and physically active enough to find vigorous
amusement in her company. Malcourt's stinging words concerning his
bodily unloveliness and self-centred inertia came into his mind; and a
slow blush deepened the colour in his heavy face.

What vanity he had reckoned on had deserted him along with any hope of
compromising a case only too palpably against him. And yet, through the
rudiments of better feeling awakening within him, the instinct of thrift
still coloured his ideas a little.

"I'm dead wrong, Alida. We might just as well save fees and costs and go
over the damages together.... I'll pay them. I ought to, anyway. I
suppose I don't usually do what I ought. Malcourt says I don't--said so
very severely--very mortifyingly the other day. So--if you'll get him or
your own men to decide on the amount--"

"Do you think the amount matters?"

"Oh, of course it's principle; very proper of you to stand on your
dignity--"

"I am not standing on it now; I am listening to your utter
misapprehension of me and my motives.... I don't care for any--damages."

"It is perfectly proper for you to claim them, if," he added
cautiously, "they are within reason--"

"Mr. Portlaw!"

"What?" he asked, alarmed.

"I would not touch a penny! I meant to give it to the schools,
here--whatever I recovered.... Your misunderstanding of me is
abominable!"

He hung his head, heavy-witted, confused as a stupid schoolboy, feeling,
helplessly, his clumsiness of mind and body.

Something of this may have been perceptible to her--may have softened
her ideas concerning him--ideas which had accumulated bitterness during
the year of his misbehaviour and selfish neglect. Her instinct divined
in his apparently sullen attitude the slow intelligence and mental
perturbation of a wilful, selfish boy made stupid through idleness and
self-indulg