"Your Excellency ?" "It was the right foot, was it not ?" queried his sometime leader.

"Ah, I thought so! Then it were best not to limp with the left." Homeric laughter shook the air; but while Mr.Haward laughed not, neither did he frown or blush.

"I will remember, sir," he said simply, and at once began to limp with the proper foot.

When he reached the bank he turned, and, standing with his arm around his horse's neck, watched the company which he had so summarily deserted, as it put itself into motion and went slowly past him up its dusky road.

The laughter and bantering farewells moved him not; he could at will draw a line around himself across which few things could step.