Princess Maritza | Page 2

to much that was said against him?
There were few hours in the day in which he did not brood over his trouble, over the loss of his career which it involved, and as he approached the top of the downs his eyes were bent upon the ground in deep thought, while in his heart was fierce rebellion against the world and his fellow men.
He was suddenly startled by a sharp and shrill "Hallo!" and at the same moment was aware of a straw hat racing past him a little to his left. A run of a few yards enabled him to intercept it, and he grasped it in his strong fingers, regardless of the flowers and ribbons upon it. Then he turned to discover the owner.
She was standing on the summit of the downs, her loose hair streaming in the breeze. She did not come to meet him, but waited for him to go to her.
"I am afraid it is not improved," he said, handing her the hat.
"I hardly expected it would be when I saw the way you dived for it," she answered with a smile; "but thanks all the same. Had it got past you, it would have been good-bye to it altogether. Isn't this a morning?"
"Very pleasant after the rain," he said.
"Pleasant!" she cried. "Is that the best you can say for it? Pleasant! Why it makes me feel that there is nothing in the world which is beyond my power; no difficulty I could not fight and overcome; no danger I could not despise and laugh at. My blood is full of the very fire I of life, and I pant to do something-something unexpected, outrageous, desperate. Don't you ever feel like that?"
"Sometimes."
"It is good to be a man," she went on. "He has the world before him, with its high places waiting to be won. There is nothing out of his reach, if he strive sufficiently, no honor he may not win to. Oh, I wish I were a man!"
There was a half-whimsical smile upon Ellerey's face, at her enthusiasm, and in his eyes a look of admiration, which he could not conceal, at her beauty. Her loose hair streaming in the wind was the color of burnished copper, rich as a golden autumn tint in the glow of an evening sun. Her eyes were dark, yet of a changeful color, as full of secrets as a deep pool in the hollow of a wood, quiet, silent secrets which presently, when the time came, a lover might seek to understand, yet promising angry and tempestuous moods should storms happen. Her lips, parted often as though she were waiting for someone with eager expectation, revealed an even row of pearly teeth, and the pink flush of health and beauty was in her cheeks. She was tall: with her hair done up, would have passed for a woman already, Desmond thought; with it down, and her frock to her boot-tops, she was still a girl, a beautiful girl, a very pleasant picture to contemplate.
"Being a man is not always such a grand thing as you suppose," Ellerey said after a pause.
"He has a freedom which a woman never has," the girl answered quickly. "Oh, yes, women try, especially in this country, I know, but it is never the same. She cannot be a statesman, she cannot he a soldier. She cannot take her life by the throat, as it were, and win place and power by the sheer force of a good right arm as a man can." "But she often succeeds in ruling the man after he has won place and power," Ellerey answered.
"That sort of conquest does not appeal to me."
"Ah, but it will some day," he returned quickly, and then he half regretted his words, remembering she was but a girl.
She looked at him curiously for a moment, a smile upon her lips, yet a little anger lurking in her eyes.
"You think I am very young," she said.
"Are you not?"
"And very innocent, or ignorant, or whatever word you would use to explain me."
"You can hardly have probed life very deeply yet," said Ellerey.
"Much deeper than you would imagine," she answered. "You are not so very wise and old yourself, are you?"
"Indeed, no; I fancy I am more of a fool than anything else," he laughed.
"You should not let yourself think that," she said gravely. "To think highly of one's powers is half-way to success. That sounds as if I had stolen something from a copy-book, doesn't it? But no, I am speaking from experience. Why do you laugh? Some of us have to touch life's hardships early."
"You do not show the marks of such experience," said Ellerey, hardly knowing whether to treat her seriously or not.
"No, but I might, were I conscious of what