nized that."

Mrs. Hastings looked at her dubiously. "Then," she commented, "you have
either a somewhat extraordinary character, or you are in love with him
in a way that is beyond most of us. In any case, I can't help feeling
that you will be sorry some day for what you have done."

Next moment the door closed with a bang, and Agatha was left alone to
analyze her sensations during her interview with Wyllard. She found the
task difficult, for her memory of what had happened was confused and
fragmentary. She had certainly been angry with Wyllard. It was
humiliating that he had evidently taken it for granted that the greater
security she would enjoy as his wife would have preponderance of weight
with her, yet there was a certain satisfaction in the reflection that to
leave her dependent upon Mrs. Hastings caused him concern. For another
thing, his reserve had been perplexing, and it was borne in upon her
that it would have cost her a more determined effort to withstand him
had he spoken with fire and passion.

If the man had been fervently in love with her, why had he not insisted
on that fact? she asked herself. Could it have been because, with the
fantastic generosity of which he was evidently capable, he had been
willing to leave his friend unhandicapped with an open field? That
seemed too much to expect from any man. Then there was the other
explanation--that he preferred to leave the choice wholly to her, lest
he should tempt her too strongly to break faith with Gregory. This idea
brought the blood to her face since it suggested that he believed that
he had merely to urge her sufficiently in order to make her yield. There
was, it seemed, no satisfactory explanation at all! The one fact
remained that he had made her a dispassionate offer of marriage, and had
left her to decide.

Wyllard could not have made the matter very much clearer. Shrewdly
practical, as he was in some respects, there were times when he acted
blindly, merely doing without reasoning what he felt sub-consciously was
right. This had more than once involved him in disaster, but in the long
run the failures of such men often prove better than the dictates of
calculating wisdom.

Agatha found a momentary relief from her thoughts as she watched Hawtrey
get down from his wagon and approach the house. The change in him was
plainer than it had ever been. It may have been because she had now a
standard of comparison that it was so apparent. He was tall