the fair small
head at his shoulder, with its lovely pale-brown hair drawn softly
over the temples, and its glimpse of the matchless profile inclined
beneath--that it was all right.

He waited for a long time, with a joyous patience, for her to speak. The
mere fact that she stood beneath his engirdling arm, and gave no thought
to the potential servants'-eyes behind them, was enough for present
happiness. He regarded the illimitable picture commanded from his
terrace with refreshed eyes; it was once again the finest view in
England--and something much more than that beside.

At last, abruptly, she laughed aloud--a silvery, amused little laugh
under her breath. "How comedy and tragedy tread forever on each other's
heels!" she remarked. Her tone was philosophically gay, but upon
reflection he did not wholly like her words.

"There wasn't any tragedy," he said, "and there isn't any comedy."

She laughed again. "Oh, don't say that this doesn't appeal to your sense
of humour!" she urged, with mock fervour.

Thorpe sighed in such unaffected depression at this, that she seemed
touched by his mood. Without stirring from his hold, she lifted her
face. "Don't think I'm hateful," she bade him, and her eyes were very
kind. "There's more truth in what you've been saying than even you
imagine. It really wasn't the money--or I mean it might easily have been
the same if there had been no money. But how shall I explain it? I am
attracted by a big, bold, strong pirate, let us say, but as soon as
he has carried me off--that is the phrase for it--then he straightway
renounces crime and becomes a law-abiding, peaceful citizen. My
buccaneer transforms himself, under my very eyes, into an alderman! Do
you say there is no comedy in that--and tragedy too?"

"Oh, put it that way and it's all right," he declared, after a moment's
consideration. "I've got as much fun in me as anybody else," he went
on, "only your jokes have a way of raising blisters on me, somehow.
But that's all done with now. That's because I didn't know you--was
frightened of you. But I aint scared any more. Everything is different!"

With a certain graciousness of lingering movement, she withdrew herself
from his clasp, and faced him with a doubtful smile. "Ah, don't be too
sure," she murmured.

"Everything is different!" he repeated, with confident emphasis. "Don't
you see yourself it is?"

"You say it is," she replied, hesitatingly, "but that alone doesn't make
it