se to remember. Thou must see thy
friends, and, above all, write to Mr. Hamilton at once, and do as I have
said. I shall speak to my mother. Hast thou--of course thou hast seen
thy mother?"

"I have; and she takes it all as a matter of no moment, really of not
the least importance."

"Indeed, and so must we. Now, I am to be kissed--oh, once, for the good
of thy soul--I said once. Mr. Bingham has been here. See him and Mr.
Wynne, and swim to-night, Rene, and be careful, too, of my property,
thy--dear self."

Even in this hour of mortification, and with the memory of Randolph's
doubt in mind, Rene had some delightful sense of being taken in hand and
disciplined. He had not said again that the tie which bound them
together must be broken. He had tacitly accepted the joy of defeat, a
little ashamed, perhaps.

Every minute of this talk had been a revelation to the man who had lived
near Margaret for years. An older man could have told him that no length
of life will reveal to the most observant love all the possibilities of
thought or action in the woman who may for years have been his wife.
There will always remain surprises of word and deed.

Although Rene listened and said that he could do none of the things she
urged, the woman knew that he would do all of them.

At last she started up, saying: "Why, Rene, thou hast not had thy
dinner, and now, as we did not look for thee, it is long over. Come in
at once."

"Dear Pearl," he said, "I am better let alone. I do not need anything."
He wished to be left by himself to brood over the cruel wrong of the
morning, and with any one but Pearl he would have shown some sense of
irritation at her persistence.

The wild creatures are tamed by starvation, the animal man by good
feeding. This fact is the sure possession of every kindly woman; and so
it was that De Courval went meekly to the house and was fed,--as was
indeed needed,--and having been fed, with the girl watching him, was
better in body and happier in mind.

He went at once into Schmidt's study and wrote to Hamilton, while
Margaret, sitting in her room at the eastward window, cried a little and
smiled between the tears and wondered at the ways of men.

What she said to her mother may be easily guessed. The vicomtesse was as
usual at the evening meal, where Rene exerted himself to talk of his
journey to Mrs. Swanwick, less interested than was her way.

The day drew to a close. The shadows came with coolness in t