I was not there that he would soon
forget.

He looked at me with sad, stern eyes.

"That's not true! You know it's not true. I am not the sort to forget.
And if there is no one else, why should I try? Evelyn, you don't know
me, if you think one `no' will put me off. I said I would wait seven
years, and I meant what I said. If you go away, I shall follow. What's
this nonsense of leaving no address? Do you imagine, if I choose to
look for you, you can hide yourself from ME?"

He looked so big and masterful that for a moment I felt a qualm of
doubt; then I comforted myself with the reflection that it would be
impossible to discover what did not exist. For a period of time Evelyn
Wastneys was about to disappear from the face of the earth. The
spinster of the basement flat was about to take her place.

"I don't love you! I don't love you!" I repeated helplessly. "I have
never once thought of you except as a--a rather cross, overbearing man
who had taken a dislike to me at first sight. How can I turn round all
in a moment and look upon you as a--a lover? And I have my friend and
my work--and we have just taken our house. I don't want to be married!
I couldn't be married even if I cared!"

"You are going to be married. You are going to marry me! What is this
`work' of which you talk? A woman's work is to make a home, and to help
a man to find his soul. Evelyn, do you imagine for one moment that I am
going to let you go?"

He was himself again: self-confident, resolute, overbearing. I took
refuge in silence, and argued no more.

"Have you enjoyed your drive?" Delphine asked. "Was Ralph civil? It
was unfortunate that I had to leave you alone. Where did you buy your
bonnet, Evelyn? I must get one like it for myself. Does your head
ache, dear? You look quite pale."

I said it did. _Something_ ached! It kept me awake all night with a
dreary, heavy pain. I lay and thought, and thought, until my brain was
in a whirl. Had I been to blame in the past? Honestly I could not see
that I had. What was I to do in the future? Must I tell Charmion? How
could I ever return to "Pastimes"? Round and round the questions
whirled in a never-ending circle, but no solutions came. Then I said my
prayers, with a special plea for guidance for a very lonely, very
worried girl, and gradually, surely, I grew calmer. I reminded myself
that there was no need to worry over the future; and that all I had to
do for