"I used it only to illustrate the proposition."
"Are you trying to make me quarrel with you?" she demanded.
"Surely not."
"Then let us avoid the personal."
"I will do anything to preserve the peace," I said—"and be shown those other rides."
"The peace depends entirely upon yourself."
"And the rides?"
She studied her gloves a bit. "They depend upon your good behavior and—the future." And now, something of the old sweetness was in her smile.
"Then the rides are sure," I said. "Come, let us give the horses a chance to stretch themselves."
We pulled up at the Old Forge; a smithy long deserted and now almost hidden beneath vines and undergrowth. It lay at the crossways of two roads—like a log on a saw-buck—and our route was around it to the left. Just beside the track a spring bubbled out into a wide rock basin. At the basin a tall bay horse was drinking; and in the saddle, with hands clasped around the pommel, sat the Princess Dehra, so deep in thought she did not note our approach.