d satin fell open at the waist; disclosing sky-blue breeches and
pearl-colored stockings, elegant shoes of Spanish leather with red heels
and diamond buckles. His chestnut hair had been dressed with as great
care as though he were attending a levee, and Leduc had insisted upon
placing a small round patch under his left eye, that it might--said
Leduc--impart vivacity to a countenance that looked over-wan from his
long confinement.

He reclined there, and, as I have said, was almost happy.

The creature of sunshine that was himself at heart, had broken through
the heavy clouds that had been obscuring him. An oppressive burden was
lifted from his mind and conscience. That sword-thrust through the back
a month ago had been guided, he opined, by the hand of a befriending
Providence; for although he had, as you see, survived it, it had none
the less solved for him that hateful problem he could never have solved
for himself, that problem whose solution,--no matter which alternative
he had adopted--must have brought him untold misery afterwards.

As it was, during the weeks that he had lain helpless, his life attached
to him by but the merest thread, the chance of betraying Lord Ostermore
was gone, nor--the circumstances being such as they were--could Sir
Richard Everard blame him that he had let it pass.

Thus he knew peace; knew it as only those know it who have sustained
unrest and can appreciate relief from it.

Nature had made him a voluptuary, and reclining there in an ease which
the languor born of his long illness rendered the more delicious,
inhaling the tepid summer air that came to him laden with a most sweet
attar from the flowering rose-garden, he realized that with all its
cares life may be sweet to live in youth and in the month of June.

He sighed, and smiled pensively at the water-lilies; nor was his
happiness entirely and solely the essence of his material ease. This
was his third morning out of doors, and on each of the two mornings that
were gone Hortensia had borne him company, coming with the charitable
intent of lightening his tedium by reading to him, but remaining to talk
instead.

The most perfect friendliness had prevailed between them; a camaraderie
which Mr. Caryll had been careful not to dispel by any return to such
speeches as those which had originally offended but which seemed now
mercifully forgotten.

He was awaiting her, and his expectancy heightened for him the glory of
the morning,