Princess Maritza | Page 2

No woman in the past had given him a single heart throb
which love lent a sense of pain to, and it seemed unlikely that any
woman would wish to do so now. For Desmond Ellerey was a man
under a cloud, a very black cloud, the gloom of which even this breezy
morning could not entirely dispel from his face. He had set himself to
bear his burden bravely, but the task was a heavy one. Surely those
straightforward blue eyes gave the lie 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