She hid her face against him, and he felt a violent tremor go through her.  He put his arm about her and held her close.

“My darling, what makes you so superstitious?”

“I’m not,” she murmured shakily.  “It isn’t superstitious to believe in death, is it?  It’s a fact one can’t get away from.  And it frightens me—­it frightens me!  Think of it, Trevor!  We only belong to each other till death us do part.  Afterwards—­who knows?—­we may be in different worlds.”

He pressed her closer, feeling her cling to him.  “There is a greater thing than death, Chris,” he said.

“I know!  I know!” she whispered back.  “But—­I sometimes think—­I’m not big enough for it.  I sometimes wonder—­if God gave me a heart at all.”

“My little Chris!” he said.  “My darling!”

She lifted a troubled face.  The tears were in her eyes.  “Don’t you often think me silly and fickle?” she said.  “And you’ll find it more and more the more you see of me.  You’ll be disappointed in me—­you’ll be horribly disappointed—­some day.”

He looked down at her with great tenderness.  “That day will never come, dear,” he said.  “If it did, I should blame myself much more than I blamed you.  Come!  You mustn’t cry on our wedding-day.  You’re not really unhappy?”

“But I’m afraid,” she said.

He dried her eyes and kissed her.  “There is nothing to make you afraid,” he said.  “Haven’t I sworn to love and cherish you?”

She nestled to him with a sigh.  “It was very nice of you, Trevor,” she said.

Her spirits revived during her motor-ride to Kellerton.  The renovations there were in full swing.  One portion of the house had been already made habitable for them.  Mordaunt had had the entire management of this, but, as Chris gaily remarked, she would probably change everything round when she came upon the scene.

“I feel as if the holidays have just begun,” she said to him as they sped over the dusty road.  “And I’m going to work harder than I have ever worked in my life.”

“If I let you,” he said.

At which remark she made a face, and then, repenting patted his knee.  “You will let me do what I like, I know.  You always do.”

“In moderation,” said Trevor, with a smile.

She dismissed the matter as too trivial for discussion.  “When are you going to let me drive?”

He gave her her first lesson then and there, an experience which delighted Chris so much that she refused to relinquish the wheel until they stopped at a country town for luncheon.

Here her whole attention was occupied in keeping Cinders from chasing the hotel cat, till Trevor caught and cuffed the miscreant, when her anxiety turned to indignation on her darling’s behalf, and she snatched him away and kept him sheltered in her arms for the rest of their sojourn.

“I never punish Cinders,” she said.  “He’s hardly ever naughty, and if he is he’s always sorry afterwards.”