Bellarion would have turned another way. It had become a habit with him whenever he espied the Countess. But the lady hailed him, consigning the hooded falcon on her wrist into the keeping of her falconer, who with the grooms fell back to a respectful distance as Bellarion, reluctantly obedient, approached. 'If you're for home, Bellarion, we'll ride together.' Uncomfortable, he murmured a gratified assent that sounded as false as he intended that it should. She looked at him sideways as they moved on together. She spoke of hawking. Here was fine open country for the sport. A flight could be followed for miles in any direction, moving almost as directly along the ground as the birds moved in the air above. Yet sport that day had been provokingly sluggish, and quarries had been sought in vain. It would be the heat, she opined, which kept the birds under cover. In silence he jogged beside her, letting her prate, until at last she too fell silent. Then, after a spell, with a furtive sidelong glance from under her long lashes, she asked him a question in a small voice. 'You are angry with me, Bellarion?' He was startled, but recovered instantly. 'That were a presumption, madonna.' 'In you it might be a condescension. You are so aloof these days. You have avoided me as persistently as I have sought you.' 'Could I suppose you sought me?' 'You might have seen.' 'If I had not deemed it wiser not to look.' She sighed a little. 'You make it plain that it is not in you to forgive.' 'That does not describe me. I bear no malice to any living man or woman.' 'But what perfection! I wonder you could bear to stray from Heaven!' It was no more than an impulsive display of her claws. Instantly she withdrew them. 'No, no. Dear God, I do not mean to mock at you. But you're so cold, so placid! That is how you come to be the great soldier men are calling you. But it will not make men love you, Bellarion.' Bellarion smiled. 'I don't remember to have sought men's love.' 'Nor women's, eh?' 'The fathers taught me to avoid it.' 'The fathers! The fathers!' Her mockery was afoot again. 'In God's name, why ever did you leave the fathers?' 'It was what I was asking myself when I came upon you.' 'And you found no answer when you saw me?' 'None, madonna.' Her face whitened a little, and her breath came shorter. 'You're blunt!' she said, and uttered a little laugh that was hard and unpleasant. He explained himself. 'You are my Lord Facino's wife.' 'Ah!' Her expression changed again. 'I knew we should have that. But if I were not? If I were not?' She faced him boldly, in a sudden eagerness that he deemed piteous. The solemnity of his countenance increased. He looked straight before him. 'In all this idle world there is naught so idle as to consider what we might be if it were different.' She had no answer for a while, and they rode a little way side by side in silence, her attendants following out of earshot.