el were driving rapidly along a
dark and deserted street.

"Do you feel better?" he asked.

She did not answer for a moment, afraid of breaking down. Gwynne was
sure to offer prompt consolation, and even if he assumed the brotherly
attitude, she had no wish to be taken in his arms. In spite of herself
his calm reiteration that he intended to marry her had forced its seed
into her brain, for ideas projected from bold determined minds are
insistent things. But never had love and all connected with it been so
hateful to her as at this moment. He peered into her face.

"You are not going to cry!" he exclaimed. "You!"

"No, I am not! But I never was so nearly overcome. Such noise! Such
sights! Such heat! It was too bad to take you away, though. Shall you go
back?"

"Not I! May I smoke? We shall be an hour reaching the base of our cliff
at this rate. He is apparently going out to the cemeteries under
pretence of avoiding the hills."

He elevated his feet to the opposite seat and lit a cigarette.

"I wish my mother had come home before we left. It was a pity for her to
miss this. Even if she would not dine with us, I could have returned for
her."

"I saw her in the crowd with a party of people. I might have told you,
but my mind has been in as many pieces to-night as a bag full of
confetti. I am sure she has seen it all."

"Good. It was what you might call a trifle variegated, but not to be
missed. Great old town, this! No wonder they think California is the
world, out here. It is what they say of the London flats:
'self-contained.' I like Hofer better than ever. The man whom champagne
transforms into a big silly boy is the right sort. Is there really a
workaday world, a city to reform, and two ranches up the valley?"

XXXIX

They reached home sooner than might have been expected, but there were
many fares below, and the hackman galloped down the hill as recklessly
as if a slip would not have been the death of himself and his valiant
beasts.

Isabel went directly to her room and persuaded Gwynne to go to his,
arguing that some one of his mother's party would be sure to bring her
home. As he was to take the 7:30 train he made no protest. Even were he
still awake when Lady Victoria returned, the fog was rolling in; nor was
he likely to be leaning from his window.

Isabel heard her come in two hours later, and it was another hour before
she slept. She had determined to ask her wayward but still awesome
r