ne for her, but at nineteen! And the doctor left the house,
reflecting that were not educated people the most timorous of all, the
emoluments of his profession would be slight.

Whether or not Miss Raritan found the chop and claret sufficient, or
whether she partook of a bromide as well, is not a part of history. In a
little while after the physician's departure a servant brought word to
Tristrem that for the moment Mrs. Raritan was unable to leave her
daughter, but if he would have his dinner then, Mrs. Raritan would see
him later. Such was the revulsion of feeling that Tristrem, to whom, ten
minutes before, the mere mention of food would have been distasteful,
sat down, and ate like a wolf. The meal finished, he went out on the
porch. There was no moon as yet, but the sky was brilliant with the
lights of other worlds. Before him was the infinite, in the air was the
scent of sea-weed, and beyond, the waves leaped up and fawned upon the
bluffs. And as he stood and watched it all, the servant came to him with
Mrs. Raritan's apologies. She thought it better, the maid explained, not
to leave Miss Raritan just yet, and would Mr. Varick be good enough to
excuse her for that evening?

"Wait a second," he answered, and went to his room. He found the jewels,
and brought them down-stairs. "Take these to Miss Raritan," he said, and
on a card he wrote some word of love, which he gave with the trinkets to
the maid. "_La parlate d'amor_," he murmured, as the servant left to do
his bidding, and then he went again to his room, and sat down at the
window companioned only by the stars. From beyond, the boom and
retreating wash of waves was still audible, and below in the garden he
caught, now and then, the spark and glitter of a firefly gyrating in
loops of gold, but the tower which he had noticed on arriving was lost
in the night.

It was in that direction, he told himself, that the accident must have
occurred. And what was it, after all? As yet he had not fully
understood. Had the horse stumbled, or had he bolted and thrown her? If
he had only been there! And as his fancy evoked the possibilities of
that ride, he saw a terrified brute tearing along a deserted road,
carrying the exquisite girl straight to some sudden death, and, just
when the end was imminent, his own muscles hardened into steel, he had
him by the bit and, though dragged by the impetus, at last he held him,
and she was safe. She was in his arms, her own about his nec