"
"Perhaps it was impossible," Mrs. Gould admitted, slowly. Her lips
quivered a little, but she smiled with an air of dainty bravado. "We
have disturbed a good many snakes in that Paradise, Charley, haven't
we?"
"Yes, I remember," said Charles Gould, "it was Don Pepe who called the
gorge the Paradise of snakes. No doubt we have disturbed a great many.
But remember, my dear, that it is not now as it was when you made that
sketch." He waved his hand towards the small water-colour hanging alone
upon the great bare wall. "It is no longer a Paradise of snakes. We have
brought mankind into it, and we cannot turn our backs upon them to go
and begin a new life elsewhere."
He confronted his wife with a firm, concentrated gaze, which Mrs. Gould
returned with a brave assumption of fearlessness before she went out,
closing the door gently after her.
In contrast with the white glaring room the dimly lit corredor had a
restful mysteriousness of a forest glade, suggested by the stems and the
leaves of the plants ranged along the balustrade of the open side.
In the streaks of light falling through the open doors of the
reception-rooms, the blossoms, white and red and pale lilac, came out
vivid with the brilliance of flowers in a stream of sunshine; and Mrs.
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