He checked his horse and hers, and turned full upon her: "Kate, you are the wife of my enemy, I must remember that! If I found you playing a double part between him and me, I should hate you more than I hate him; and then ... I should be capable of any crime. Well, I will not put it in your power. You will know all soon enough. Meantime, I trust you in this--to keep silence on what I have said to-day. Let him believe that he will succeed until he knows that he has failed. Will you promise that?" Mrs. Pennroyal saw no harm in making this promise, but she did not see why she should not make as great a favor as she could of granting it. "A wife should have no secrets from her husband, Archibald." "Have you never had a secret from him, Kate?" "You have no right to ask that!" Archibald laughed. "Are you as happy with him as the day is long?" She looked up for a moment, and their eyes met. "The days seem very long sometimes," she said, almost beneath her breath. "This day?" he demanded, bending toward her. "Autumn days are short, you know," she said, smiling a little, with averted face. "Do you often ride out in autumn?" "What else can I do, when my husband is away from home? I must go now--it is late." "And your promise?" For the third time that afternoon she gave him her hand. Her color was higher than usual, and her breathing somewhat uneven. She had not passed unscathed through this interview. Archibald's was the stronger spirit, and she felt his power--felt it, and liked to feel it! And he, as he held her warm and delicate hand in his own, was conscious of a strange tumult in his heart. Was fate, which he had hitherto found so adverse, going to change at last, and yield him everything at once--revenge and love in the same breath? A revenge consummated through love were sweet indeed. They parted at length, and rode away in opposite directions. This was their first meeting, but it was not their last by many. XI.