He took the thing with its lace veil from her, and the ruffled waves of her glorious hair as she lay there nearly drove him mad with the longing to caress.

How, in God’s name, would they ever be able to live?  He must go outside and fight with himself.

And she wondered why his face grew so stern.  And when she was settled comfortably again and the boat had started he left her alone.

It was, fortunately, so rough that there were very few people about, and he went far forward and leant on the rail, and let the salt air blow into his face.

What if, in the end, this wild passion for her should conquer him and he should give in, and have to confess that her cruel words did not hinder him from loving her?  It would be too ignominious.  He must pull himself together and firmly suppress every emotion.  He determined to see her as little as possible when they got to Paris, and when the ghastly honeymoon week, that he had been contemplating with so much excitement and joy should be over, then they would go back to England, and he would take up politics in earnest, and try and absorb himself in that.

And Zara, lying in the cabin, was unconscious of any direct current of thought; she was quite unconscious that already this beautiful young husband of hers had made some impression upon her, and that, underneath, for all her absorption in her little brother and her own affairs, she was growing conscious of his presence and that his comings and goings were things to remark about.

And, strengthened in his resolve to be true to the Tancred pride, Tristram came back to her as they got into Calais harbor.

CHAPTER XVIII

The servants at the Ritz, in Paris, so exquisitely drilled, made no apparent difference, when the bride and bridegroom arrived there about half-past seven o’clock, than if they had been an elderly brother and sister; and they were taken to the beautiful Empire suite on the Vendome side of the first floor.  Everything was perfection in the way of arrangement, and the flowers were so particularly beautiful that Zara’s love for them caused her to cry out,

“Oh! the dear roses!  I must just bury my face in them, first.”

They had got through the railway journey very well; real, overcoming fatigue had caused them both to sleep, and in the automobile, coming to the hotel, they had exchanged a few stiff words.

“To-morrow night we can dine out at a restaurant,” Tristram had said, “but to-night perhaps you are tired and would rather go to bed?”

“Thank you,” said Zara.  “Yes, I would.”  For she thought she wanted to write her letters to Mirko and tell him of her new name and place.  So she put on a tea-gown, and at about half-past eight joined Tristram in the sitting-room.  If they had not both been so strained their sense of humor would not have permitted them to refrain from a laugh.  For here they sat in state, and, when the waiters were in the room, exchanged a few remarks.  But Zara did notice that her husband never once looked at her with any directness, and he seemed coldly indifferent to anything she said.