mbling a little. "You won't interfere with
my--liberty?"

"Not unless you abuse it," he said.

She laughed again faintly. "I won't do that. I'll be a model of
discretion. You may not think it, but I am--very discreet."

"I am sure of it," said Burke.

"No, you're not. You're not in the least sure of anything where I
am concerned. You've only known me--two days."

He laughed a little. "It doesn't matter how long it has taken. I
know you."

She laughed with him, and sat up, "What must you have thought of me
when I told you you hadn't shaved?"

He took out his pipe again. "If you'd been a boy, I should
probably have boxed your ears," he said. "By the way, why did you
get up when I told you to stay in bed?"

"Because I knew best what was good for me," said Sylvia. "Have you
got such a thing as a cigarette?"

He got up. "Yes, in my room. Wait while I fetch them!"

"Oh, don't go on purpose!" she said. "I daresay I shouldn't like
your kind, thanks all the same."

He went nevertheless, and she leaned back with her face to the
hills and waited. The moon was just topping the great summits.
She watched it with a curious feeling of weakness. It had not been
a particularly agitating interview, but she knew that she had just
passed a cross-roads, in her life.

She had taken a road utterly unknown to her and though she had
taken it of her own accord, she did not feel that the choice had
really been hers. Somehow her faculties were numbed, were
paralyzed. She could not feel the immense importance of what she
had done, or realize that she had finally, of her own action,
severed her life from Guy's. He had become such a part of herself
that she could not all at once divest herself of that waiting
feeling, that confident looking forward to a future with him. And
yet, strangely, her memory of him had receded into distance, become
dim and remote. In Burke's presence she could not recall him at
all. The two personalities, dissimilar though she knew them to be,
seemed in some curious fashion to have become merged into one. She
could not understand her own feelings, but she was conscious of
relief that the die was cast. Whatever lay before her, she was
sure of one thing. Burke Ranger would be her safeguard against any
evil that might arise and menace her. His protection was of the
solid quality that would never fail her. She felt firm ground
beneath her feet at last.

At the sound of his returning