Page:The Relentless City.djvu/106

96 from the cistern. One day it would be all given in full flood, its waters would bathe one who had chosen her, and whom her heart chose.

This morning she was riding through the woods with Bertie Keynes, the charmingly sensible laws of American etiquette making it possible for her to ride with anyone she wished, alone and unattended. They had just pulled up from a gallop through the flowering wood paths, and the two horses, muscle-stretched and quiet, were willing to walk unfrettingly side by side.

she said.

said Bertie.

said she. and she paused for a word.

he said.

He looked at her a moment.

he said.

Amelie was not fool enough to take this as a compliment, or to simper acknowledgments. As he spoke he wondered how she would take it, hoped she would look at him, anyhow, then hoped she would not.

she said.

said Bertie.