dened eyes to
his. Afterward he could have sworn they were wet with tears. "I stand in
your way, don't I? What can I do, not to stand in your way?"

"Do?" said Jeff, in a rage at all the passions between men and women.
"Do? You can stop talking sentiment about me and putting words into my
mouth. You can make over your life, if you know how, and I'll help you
do it, if I can. I thought you were trying to free yourself. You can do
that. I won't lift a hand. You can say you're afraid of me, as you have
before. God knows whether you are. If you are, you're out of your mind.
But you can say it, and I won't deny you've just cause. You mustn't be a
prisoner to me."

"Jeff!" said Esther.

"What is it?" he asked.

She spoke tremblingly, weakly really as if she had not the strength to
speak, and he came a step nearer and laid his hand on the granite
gatepost. It was so hard it gave him courage. There were blood-red vines
on it, and when he disturbed their stems they loosened leaves and let
them drift over his hand.

"Now I see," said Esther, "how really alone I am. I thought I was when
you were away, but it was nothing to this."

She walked on, listlessly, aimlessly even though she kept the path and
she was going on her way as she had elected to before she saw him. But
to Jeff she seemed to be a drifting thing. A delicate butterfly floated
past him, weakened by the coldness of last night and fluttering on into
a night as cold.

"Esther," he called, and hurried after her. "You don't want me to walk
with you?" he asked impatiently. "You don't want Addington to say we've
made it up?"

"I don't care about Addington," said Esther. "It can say what it
pleases--if you're kind to me."

"Kind!" said Jeff. "I could have you trounced. You don't play fair. What
do you mean by mixing me all up with pity and things--" Esther's lids
were not allowed to lift, but her heart gave a little responsive bound.
So she had mixed him up!--"Getting the facts all wrong," Jeff went on
irritably. "You ignore everything you've felt before to-day. And you
begin to-day and say I've not been kind to you."

Now Esther looked at him. She smiled.

"Scold away," she said. "I've wanted you to scold me. I haven't been so
happy for months."

"Of course I scold you," said Jeff. "I want to see you happy. I want to
see you rid of me and beginning your life all over, so far as you can.
You're not the sort to live alone. It's an outrage against nature. A
wo