So they arrived at the picnic, silent; and the people assembled looked to one another and smiled, and said to one another how glum those two engaged people looked, being together, and each wanting another.  Mr. Breeze had not yet come; and as the people scattered while the luncheon was being prepared, Pinckney and she wandered off like the others.  They went some distance—­perhaps a mile or more—­aimlessly; and then, as they seemed to have come about to the end of the valley, Pinckney sat down upon a rock, but she did not do so, but remained standing.  Hardly a word had so far been said between them:  and then Pinckney looked at her and said: 

“Why are you going to marry Mr. Breeze?”

“Why not?”—­listlessly.

“You might as well throw yourself into the sea,” said Pinckney; and he looked at the sea which lay beyond them shimmering.

“That I had not thought of,” said she; and she looked at the sea herself with more interest.  Pinckney drew a long breath.

“But why this man?” he said at length.

“Why that man?” said the woman; and her beautiful lip curled, with the humor of the mind, while her eyes kept still the sadness of the heart, the look that he had seen in the ballroom.  “We are all poor,” she added; then scornfully, “it is my duty to marry.”

“But Miles Breeze?” persisted Pinckney.

The lip curled almost to a laugh.  “I never met a better fellow than Miles,” said she; and the thought was so like his own of the night before that Pinckney gasped for breath.  They went back, and had chicken croquettes and champagne, and a band that was hidden in the wood made some wild Spanish music.

Going home, a curious thing happened.  They had started first and far preceded all the others.  Miss Warfield was driving; and when they were again in the main road, not more than a mile from the hotel, Pinckney saw ahead of them, coming in a light trotting buggy of the sort that one associates with the gentry who call themselves “sports,” two of the gentlemen whom he had met at Breeze’s dinner the night before.  Whether Miss Warfield also knew them he did not know; but they evidently had more wine than was good for them, and were driving along in a reckless manner on the wrong side of the road.  The buggy was much too narrow for the two; and the one that was driving leaned out toward them with a tipsy leer.  Pinckney shouted at him, but Miss War-field drove calmly on.  He was on the point of grasping the reins, but a look of hers withheld him, and he sat still, wondering; and in a moment their small front wheel had crashed through both the axles and spider-web wheels of the trotting buggy.  The shock of the second axle whirled them round, and Pinckney fell violently against the dasher, while Miss Warfield was thrown clear of the phaeton on the outer side.  But she had kept the reins, and before Pinckney could get to her she was standing at her horses’ heads, patting their necks calmly, with