"All lace and webby pink silk and ribbands underneath,"
she reminded him; "but only for you,
and satin trains and diamonds for the others."

Her words winged like little flames into his imagination.
He whispered in her ear, "Richmond."
She stiffened in his arms as if that single word had
the power to freeze her. "We'll see, we'll see,"
he added hastily, fearing to dispel her complacency.
"Paris is a long way... a man could never come
back."

"I didn't know you were so cautious," she challenged;
"I thought you were bolder -- that's your
reputation in Greenstream, a bad one for a man
or woman to cross."

"So I've been," he acknowledged; "I told you I
wouldn't have hesitated a while back."

"What is holding you now -- your wife? She
would soon get over it. She's only a girl, she hasn't
had enough experience to hold a man. Besides, she
must know by now that you only married her for
money; she must know you don't care for her;
women always find out."

The bald, incontestable statement of his reason
for marrying Lettice disconcerted him. He had
never made the acknowledgment of putting it into
words to himself, and no one else had openly
guessed, had dared...

Suddenly it appeared to him in the light of a pos-

[[250]]

p249 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p250w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p251

v?