Women are bound to such small observances, and especially the beautiful of the sisterhood, whom the world soon warns that they carry explosives and must particularly guard against the ignition of petty sparks.

She was less indiscreet in her thoughts than in her acts, as is the way with the reflective daughter of impulse; though she had fine mental distinctions: what she could offer to do 'spirit to spirit,' for instance, held nothing to her mind of the intimacy of calling the gentleman plain Tom in mere contemplation of him.

Her friend and champion was a volunteer, far from a mercenary, and he deserved the reward, if she could bestow it unalarmed.

They were to meet in Egypt.

Meanwhile England loomed the home of hostile forces ready to shock, had she been a visible planet, and ready to secrete a virus of her past history, had she been making new.
She was happily away, borne by a whiter than swan's wing on the sapphire Mediterranean.