wife!"

Mr. Steel had stolen a silent march upon them, on the soft, smooth
grass; and now he was taking off his straw hat to Morna, and smiling
with all urbanity as he held out his hand. But Morna had seen how his
wife started at the sound of his voice, and her greeting was a little
cool.

"I meant the bicycling," he was quick enough to add; "not the
independence, of course!"

But there was something sinister in his smile, something quite sinister
and yet not unkindly, that vexed and puzzled Morna during the remainder
of her visit, which she cut somewhat short on perceiving that Mr. Steel
had apparently no intention of leaving them to their own devices after
tea. Morna, however, would have been still more puzzled, and her spirit
not less vexed, had she heard the first words between the newly married
couple after she had gone.

"What's that you have got?" asked Steel, as they turned back up the
drive, after seeing Morna to her woodland path. Rachel was still
carrying her spray of gum-leaves; he must have noticed it before, but
this was the first sign that he had done so. She said at once what it
was, and why she had pulled it from the tree.

"It took me back to Victoria; and, you know, I was born there."

Steel looked narrowly at his wife, a hard gleam in his inscrutable eyes,
and yet a lurking sympathy too, nor was there anything but the latter in
the tone and tenor of his reply.