ever, since you do resent it, I'll gladly apologize and withdraw what I said. I didn't mean to"
"Thank you," she said; and she laughed helplessly, as if in apology for the tears that now trembled upon her eyelids and the emotion that kept her from speaking. She sought her handkerchief vainly for a moment, a search always disastrous to the strength of a gentleman witnessing it; and, when she had found it and used it, gave him her hand without looking at him.
"Please forgive me," he said huskily; for the pathetic trustfulness of this final gesture necessarily completed the unmanning of him. "Could you? And forget it?"
"Of course," she murmured; and she pressed his hand fondly before gently withdrawing her own. "We must both forget a little, my dear!" And with that, she brightened, once more bravely smiling upon him. "We are spoiling a beautiful day with our nonsense. You are going to see the Gorge du Chabat el Ahkra—hillsides covered with apes, but no English—and then a great desolate plateau coloured in pastel. We are on our way to the Desert! Could we be happy again—for a little while?"
He assured her that they could and he almost be-
