broke with a thunderstorm that left the air fresh. The change seemed to make a difference to Dane. He recovered some of the fire he had lately lost. As Valerie sat with him after dinner, and saw the good mood he was in, she ventured to make an observation that she had wanted to make for some time.
“Dane, I do wish you would do something about your indigestion. You are better to-day, but you have been getting worse for months. You know diet can do wonders for that. Now don’t frown, dear. You men are all so deplorably careless about your health, and you know I happen to care a lot about yours.”
“I’ve always had a weak stomach, Valerie. I can’t do anything about the damned thing. Please don’t worry about it. It’s really going away that upsets me—this last trip—we had such a lot of greasy stuff.”
“Well, then, we mustn’t go to the wilds again.”
“Oh, please, dear, don’t bother about it. I’m all right.”
She saw that her reference to it had chilled and irritated him. To make amends, she moved her chair beside the hammock, and took one of his hands and kissed it and rubbed it against her cheek. They smoked and sat still for a while, and then, seeing that he was aloof in mood from her, she began deliberately to try to bring him back to her again, to put him in the mood when he could forget everything but her.
He felt her vitality about him like a glow in the night. There had never yet been a time when she could not stimulate him, but to-night he felt as if the springs of his forces had run dry. There was a fierce inhibition somewhere.
Valerie got up abruptly, walked to the steps, and looked up at the velvety sky where the Milky Way was like a trail of quicksilver pulverized to luminous dust. She stood still
