heart in the world.  I’m very, very fond of him, and I’m deeply grateful.  Next to seeing you free, I don’t think I have any desire in life so strong as to make him happy.  I dare say that isn’t civilized either—­but it’s what I feel.  And so we must think of this,” she continued, eagerly explanative; “we must be loyal to him, you and I, as the first of all our duties.  Don’t you think so?”

He withdrew his eyes from hers before answering.  His power of resistance was broken.  The signs of struggle were visible, and yet the quixotic element in his own nature helped him to respond to that in hers.

“I’ll try,” he muttered, looking on the ground.

“You’ll do more than try—­you’ll succeed.  Only very small souls could grudge him what he’s earned when he’s worked so hard and given himself so unstintingly.  The very fact that you and I know that we love each other will make it easier to be true to him.”

“Conquest must know that we love each other, too,” he declared, with some bitterness.

“Perhaps he does; but, you see, every one has a different way of looking at life, and I don’t think that with him it’s a thing that counts greatly.  I’m not sure that I understand him in that respect.  I only know that you and I, who owe him so much, can repay him by giving him what he asks for.  Will you promise me to do it?”

He continued to look downward, as though finding it hard to give his word; but when he raised his eyes again, he flung back his head with his old air of resolution.

“I’ll promise to do anything you ask me throughout our lives.  I don’t admit that Conquest should demand this thing or that he had any right to let you offer it.  But since you want to give it—­and I can show you no other token of my love—­and shall never again be able to tell you that I adore you—­that I adore you—­I promise—­to obey.”

XXV

The inspection of the house was over, and they had come back to the drawing-room for tea.  Conquest had lavished pains on the occasion, putting flowers in the rooms, and strewing handsome objects carelessly about, so as to impart to the great shell as much as possible the air of being lived in.  To the tea-table he had given particular attention, ordering out the most ornamental silver and the costliest porcelain, and placing the table itself just where she would probably have it in days to come, so as to get the effect she produced in sitting there, as he liked to do with a new picture or piece of furniture.

On her part, Miriam had made the rounds of the rooms with conscientious care, observing, admiring, suggesting, with just that mingling of shyness and interest with which a woman in her situation would view her future home.  Having got, by intuition, the idea that he was watching for some flaw in her manner, she was determined that he should find none.  It was the beginning of that lifelong schooling to his service