Beyond the Rocks

There were no roses now, she was very pale as she said: "It saddens me,

this. Let us go out into the sun."

They descended the staircase again almost in silence, and on through the

little door in the court-yard wall into the beautiful garden beyond.

"Show me where she was happy, where you know she was happy before any

troubles came. I want to be gay again," said Theodora.

So they walked down the path towards the hameau.

"What have I done?" Lord Bracondale wondered. "Her adorable face went

quite white. Her soul is no longer the open book I have found it. There

are depths and depths, but I must fathom them all."

"Oh, how I love the spring-time!" exclaimed Theodora, and her voice was

full of relief. "Look at those greens, so tender and young, and that

peep of the sky! Oh, and those dear, pretty little dolls' houses! Let us

hasten; I want to go and play there, and make butter, too! Don't you?"

"Ah, this is good," he said; "and I want just what you want."

Her face was all sweet and joyous as she turned it to him.

"Let's pretend we lived then," she said, "and I am the miller's daughter

of this dear little mill, and you are the bailiff's son who lives

opposite, and you have come with your corn to be ground. Oh, and I shall

make a bargain, and charge you dear!" and she laughed and swung her

parasol back, while the sun glorified her hair into burnished silver.

"What bargain could you make that I would not agree to willingly?" he

asked.

"Perhaps some day I shall make one with you--or want to--that you will

not like," she said, "and then I shall remind you of this day and your

gallant speech."

"And I shall say then as I say now. I will make any bargain with you,

so long as it is a bargain which benefits us both."

"Ah, you are a Normand, you hedge!" she laughed, but he was serious.

They walked all around the laiterie, and all the time she was gay and

whimsical, and to herself she was saying, "I am unutterably happy, but

we must not talk of love."

"Now you have had enough of this," Lord Bracondale said, when they were

again in view of the house, "and I am going to take you into a forest

like the babes in the woods, and we shall go and lose ourselves and

forget the world altogether. The very sight of these harmless tourists

in the distance jars upon me to-day. I want you alone and no one else.

Come."