hared his athletic tastes,
was a tall young man, too pale, too thin and so long in the back that
he had acquired a stoop. Simon knew that he had many faults, including
a love of whisky and the habit of haunting private bars and living by
his wits. But he was a devoted friend, in whom Simon was conscious of
a genuine and loyal affection.

The two men went forward together. Miss Bakefield came to meet Simon,
while Rolleston accosted her three friends.

Miss Bakefield wore an absolutely simple wash frock, without any of
the trimmings that were then the fashion. Her bare throat, her arms,
which showed through the muslin of her sleeves, her face and even her
forehead under her hat were of that warm tint which the skin of some
fair-haired women acquires in the sun and the open air. Her eyes were
almost black, flecked with glittering specks of gold. Her hair, which
shone with metallic glints, was dressed low on the neck in a heavy
coil. But these were trivial details which you noted only at leisure,
when you had in some degree recovered from the glorious spectacle of
her beauty in all its completeness.

Simon had not so recovered. He always paled a little when he met Miss
Bakefield's eyes, however tenderly they rested on him.

"Isabel," he said, "are you determined?"

"Quite as much as yesterday," she said, smiling; "and I shall be still
more so to-morrow, when the moment comes for action."

"Still. . . . We have known each other hardly four months."

"Meaning thereby? . . ."

"Meaning that, now that we are about to perform an irreparable action,
I invite you to use your judgment. . . ."

"Rather than listen to my love? Since I first loved you, Simon, I have
not been able to discover the least disagreement between my judgment
and my love. That's why I am going with you to-morrow morning."

"Isabel!"

"Would you rather that I left to-morrow night with my father? On a
voyage lasting three or four years? That is what he proposes, what he
insists upon. It's for you to choose."

While they exchanged these serious words, their faces displayed no
trace of the emotion which thrilled the very depths of their beings.
It was as though, in being together, they experienced that sense of
happiness which gives strength and tranquillity. And, as the girl,
like Simon, was tall and bore herself magnificently, they received a
vague impression that they were one of those privileged couples whom
destiny selects for a life more stren