load that had been arranged, knapsack-fashion, on her back, to prove how little she cared for such a burden. Anatole, lover-like, had remonstrated with her for carrying anything, but one bright flash of those appealing and brilliant blue eyes forced him to yield to her whim. She had given up the refinements of life for love's dear sake, and was going to brave hardship and live the life of natural womanhood, and she was too proud of the strength which enabled her to do it to forego one item of this new pleasure. To suffer and sacrifice are true passion's pleasures.
Dr Fernandez watched them leaving the camp with a sardonic smile on his thin lips and a mocking gleam in his dark eyes. He was one of those gifted individuals who had a wonderful talent for planting stings and saying disagreeable things at the most telling moment, and was as perfectly free from the weakness of generosity as he was beyond pity or mercy, yet he refrained on that occasion, and left unuttered the many clever barbed words that hovered on his envenomed tongue, and looked bilious and melancholy instead, as he bade them a quiet farewell, and waved his white hand languidly after them as they turned to go. Their sentence was fixed in his dark mind if they ever came back, and he was artistic enough to admire the animal beauty and vigour of both victims as they went forth with elastic tread.
The countess was tall for a woman, and the past weeks had hardened her. On this morning she had borrowed from the wardrobe of the late actress a pair of high boots, with short skirts, and a seal-skin tight-fitting jacket; a little seal cap was also on her golden tresses, which she had coiled up in Greek fashion. She was a graceful woman, who knew how to dress, who
