d,
underlay her calmness, and he could easily believe that her battle had
been fierce. She rose quickly and turned away, walked a few paces, and
stopped. In a moment she was facing him again, with tears in her eyes
and a flush in her cheeks. "But you need n't think I 'm afraid!" she
said. "I have chosen, and I shall hold to it. I have something here,
here, here!" and she patted her heart. "It 's my own. I shan't part
with it. Is it what you call an ideal? I don't know; I don't care! It is
brighter than the Casamassima diamonds!"

"You say that certain things are your own affair," Rowland presently
rejoined; "but I must nevertheless make an attempt to learn what all
this means--what it promises for my friend Hudson. Is there any hope for
him?"

"This is a point I can't discuss with you minutely. I like him very
much."

"Would you marry him if he were to ask you?"

"He has asked me."

"And if he asks again?"

"I shall marry no one just now."

"Roderick," said Rowland, "has great hopes."

"Does he know of my rupture with the prince?"

"He is making a great holiday of it."

Christina pulled her poodle towards her and began to smooth his silky
fleece. "I like him very much," she repeated; "much more than I used to.
Since you told me all that about him at Saint Cecilia's, I have felt a
great friendship for him. There 's something very fine about him; he 's
not afraid of anything. He is not afraid of failure; he is not afraid of
ruin or death."

"Poor fellow!" said Rowland, bitterly; "he is fatally picturesque."

"Picturesque, yes; that 's what he is. I am very sorry for him."

"Your mother told me just now that you had said that you did n't care a
straw for him."

"Very likely! I meant as a lover. One does n't want a lover one pities,
and one does n't want--of all things in the world--a picturesque
husband! I should like Mr. Hudson as something else. I wish he were my
brother, so that he could never talk to me of marriage. Then I could
adore him. I would nurse him, I would wait on him and save him all
disagreeable rubs and shocks. I am much stronger than he, and I would
stand between him and the world. Indeed, with Mr. Hudson for my brother,
I should be willing to live and die an old maid!"

"Have you ever told him all this?"

"I suppose so; I 've told him five hundred things! If it would please
you, I will tell him again."

"Oh, Heaven forbid!" cried poor Rowland, with a groan.

He was lingering ther