assing illusion, I am to unsettle all my arrangements, and face an
intolerable humiliation. The thing is impossible."

With vast relief Irene heard him return upon this note, and strike it
so violently. She felt no more compunction. The man was finally
declared to her, and she could hold her own against him. Her headache
had grown fierce; her mouth was dry; shudders of hot and cold ran
through her. The struggle must end soon.

"I am forgetting hospitality," she said, with sudden return to her
ordinary voice. "You would like tea."

Arnold waved his hand contemptuously.

"No?--Then let us understand each other in the fewest possible words."

"Good." He smiled, a smile which seemed to tighten every muscle of his
face. "I decline to release you from your promise."

She could meet his gaze, and did so as she answered with cold
collectedness:

"I am very sorry. I think it unworthy of you."

"I shall make no change whatever in my arrangements. Our marriage will
take place on the day appointed."

"That can hardly be, Mr. Jacks, if the bride is not there."

"Miss Derwent, the bride will be there!"

He was not jesting. All the man's pride rose to assert dominion. The
prime characteristic of his nation, that personal arrogance which is
the root of English freedom, which accounts for everything best, and
everything worst, in the growth of English power, possessed him to the
exclusion of all less essential qualities. He was the subduer amazed by
improbable defiance. He had never seen himself in such a situation it
was as though a British admiral on his ironclad found himself mocked by
some elusive little gunboat, newly invented by the condemned foreigner.
His intellect refused to acknowledge the possibility of discomfiture;
his soul raged mightily against the hint of bafflement. Humour would
not come to his aid; the lighter elements of race were ousted; he was
solid insolence, wooden-headed self-will.

Irene had risen.

"I am not feeling quite myself. I have said all there is to be said,
and I must beg you to excuse me."

"You should have begun by saying that. It is what I insisted upon."

"Shall we shake hands, Mr. Jacks?"

"To be sure!"

"It is good-bye. You understand me? If, after this, you imagine an
engagement between us, you have only yourself to blame."

"I take the responsibility." He released her hand, and made a stiff
bow. "In three days, I shall call."

"You will not see me."

"Perhaps not. Then