. Mary Garland gave me every sou she possessed in
the world. It makes exactly thirty-four francs. That 's not enough."

"You asked Miss Garland?" cried Rowland.

"I asked her."

"And told her your purpose?"

"I named no names. But she knew!"

"What did she say?"

"Not a syllable. She simply emptied her purse."

Rowland turned over and buried his face in his arms. He felt a movement
of irrepressible elation, and he barely stifled a cry of joy. Now,
surely, Roderick had shattered the last link in the chain that bound
Mary to him, and after this she would be free!... When he turned about
again, Roderick was still sitting there, and he had not touched the keys
which lay on the grass.

"I don't know what is the matter with me," said Roderick, "but I have an
insurmountable aversion to taking your money."

"The matter, I suppose, is that you have a grain of wisdom left."

"No, it 's not that. It 's a kind of brute instinct. I find it extremely
provoking!" He sat there for some time with his head in his hands and
his eyes on the ground. His lips were compressed, and he was evidently,
in fact, in a state of profound irritation. "You have succeeded in
making this thing excessively unpleasant!" he exclaimed.

"I am sorry," said Rowland, "but I can't see it in any other way."

"That I believe, and I resent the range of your vision pretending to
be the limit of my action. You can't feel for me nor judge for me, and
there are certain things you know nothing about. I have suffered, sir!"
Roderick went on with increasing emphasis. "I have suffered damnable
torments. Have I been such a placid, contented, comfortable man this
last six months, that when I find a chance to forget my misery, I should
take such pains not to profit by it? You ask too much, for a man who
himself has no occasion to play the hero. I don't say that invidiously;
it 's your disposition, and you can't help it. But decidedly, there are
certain things you know nothing about."

Rowland listened to this outbreak with open eyes, and Roderick, if
he had been less intent upon his own eloquence, would probably have
perceived that he turned pale. "These things--what are they?" Rowland
asked.

"They are women, principally, and what relates to women. Women for
you, by what I can make out, mean nothing. You have no imagination--no
sensibility!"

"That 's a serious charge," said Rowland, gravely.

"I don't make it without proof!"

"And what is your proof?"