e Cause were turned into a
more personal direction. She paid more attention to Peter than to
myself, and she evidently considered him a more desirable convert. One
evening we went together to call on her and they fell into the usual
line of discussion, he answering her in a tolerant amused way as if
she were a precocious child. I stayed behind when he left and she
walked up and down in restless agitation, half forgetful of me. 'The
personality of the man!' she cried fiercely, 'he is too strong, he is
ruthless! One cannot escape him. I cannot get him out of my head.' I
told her she had much better tackle me. She told me plainly that I was
a negative force in the world and my cousin an active. That was enough
for me. I thought she despised me and I vowed she should recognise my
possibilities as well as Peter's. If any man were to turn the
passionate stream of her nature back on herself, or to love--to see
the woman rise above the fanatic--it should be I, not Peter. But I
said nothing of this to him. I do not think he ever knew it at all. It
began in pique on my side, then jealousy, lastly passion. Christopher,
if I had loved her from the first beginning of things I should not be
ashamed to meet your eyes now. Don't look round yet. I laid deliberate
siege to her heart and found she possessed my mind night and day. Soon
it was not Peter who was my rival, but her own soul. I was confident I
should win, though Peter, it was clear, was also wooing her
persistently. He at least meant her well, Christopher. He loved her in
his uncomprehending way, wanting her for the woman she was
_not_--except in his mind. And I--I wanted her for the outward woman
she was."

He paused long enough for his listener to face clearly the portrait of
the worn, broken woman he remembered, the outward woman that bore no
likeness to the clear knowledge of the inner soul.

Aymer continued:

"At last I felt it was time to end it. Peter had been in town some
time then. I knew the senior Hibbault and he were coming to some
understanding, but I guessed nothing of the nature of it. She never
mentioned him to me at this time. She stood, poor girl, between the
two of us like a trapped creature, and because she feared herself and
neither of us, she overstepped one snare to fall into the other.
Christopher, I don't know what was in my mind when I went to her that
last evening: I had not seen her for some days, but when I stood
before her I knew suddenly I lov