“I am not jeering; I am realising the solemn fact that you have progressed a certain distance in love and are arrived at a definite and well-known milestone� . And I am merely wondering how far she has progressed — or if she has as yet journeyed any particular distance at all — or any more than set out upon the road. For the look she shot at me convinces me that she has started — in fact, has reached that turn in the thorny path where she is less inclined to defend herself than her own possessions. You seem to be one of them.”

Boyd, who had awaited the termination of our tete-a-tete with an impatience perfectly apparent to anybody who chanced to observe him, now seemed able to endure it no longer; and as he approached us I felt Lana’s hand on my arm tremble slightly; but the cool smile still curved her lips.