“What shall we talk about—­the running of Casetta?”

Deep down within him Harbinger uttered a noiseless oath.  Something sinister was making her behave like this to him!  It was that fellow—­that fellow!  And suddenly he said: 

“Tell me this——­” then speech seemed to stick in his throat.  No!  If there were anything in that, he preferred not to hear it.  There was a limit!

Down below, a pair of lovers passed, very silent, their arms round each other’s waists.

Barbara turned and walked away towards the house.

CHAPTER XI

The days when Miltoun was first allowed out of bed were a time of mingled joy and sorrow to her who had nursed him.  To see him sitting up, amazed at his own weakness, was happiness, yet to think that he would be no more wholly dependent, no more that sacred thing, a helpless creature, brought her the sadness of a mother whose child no longer needs her.  With every hour he would now get farther from her, back into the fastnesses of his own spirit.  With every hour she would be less his nurse and comforter, more the woman he loved.  And though that thought shone out in the obscure future like a glamorous flower, it brought too much wistful uncertainty to the present.  She was very tired, too, now that all excitement was over—­so tired that she hardly knew what she did or where she moved.  But a smile had become so faithful to her eyes that it clung there above the shadows of fatigue, and kept taking her lips prisoner.

Between the two bronze busts she had placed a bowl of lilies of the valley; and every free niche in that room of books had a little vase of roses to welcome Miltoun’s return.

He was lying back in his big leather chair, wrapped in a Turkish gown of Lord Valleys’—­on which Barbara had laid hands, having failed to find anything resembling a dressing-gown amongst her brother’s austere clothing.  The perfume of lilies had overcome the scent of books, and a bee, dusky, adventurer, filled the room with his pleasant humming.

They did not speak, but smiled faintly, looking at one another.  In this still moment, before passion had returned to claim its own, their spirits passed through the sleepy air, and became entwined, so that neither could withdraw that soft, slow, encountering glance.  In mutual contentment, each to each, close as music to the strings of a violin, their spirits clung—­so lost, the one in the other, that neither for that brief time seemed to know which was self.

In fulfilment of her resolution, Lady Valleys, who had returned to Town by a morning train, started with Barbara for the Temple about three in the after noon, and stopped at the doctor’s on the way.  The whole thing would be much simpler if Eustace were fit to be moved at once to Valleys House; and with much relief she found that the doctor saw no danger in this course.  The recovery had been remarkable—­touch