as afraid of any one before. I came home utterly
shattered and down-hearted. To-day I gravitated back to her, after a
sleepless night. She received me with the same friendly smile as usual,
but there seemed to be a slight shadow over her spirits. That little,
almost imperceptible change filled me with joy. I jumped to a conclusion
that intoxicated me, and made the plunge at once.

"'It is another case of the moth and the candle,' I said to her.

"'Thank you. So I am a candle? That is a fine figure of speech.'

"'Seriously speaking, I think we had not finished what we were talking
of yesterday.'

"'What were we talking of yesterday?' she had the effrontery to ask.
'Oh, yes, now I recollect. It was yourself. That subject, I fear, you
will never finish talking of.'

"'Now that's a very mean speech, all things considered,' I whined. 'Do
you want to strike a man, when he's way down?'

"'Don't play Uriah Heep. I hate 'umble people. But if I have perchance
pierced the thick epidermis of Parisian pride you have so long worn, I'm
glad of it.'

"She likes to abuse me, and I enjoy it quite as well as she. She
continued to scold me and mock me for some time, to disguise her actual
mood. I saw through it, and let her have her way for a while. The meeker
my replies, the greater the exaggerated harshness of her criticisms. At
last I no longer attempted to reply at all. Leaning back in a corner of
the sofa, I watched the play of her animated features and the light of
her dark brown eyes, and felt that she was the one woman in the
universe that suited me, the one woman I could respect and love
passionately at the same time.

"'You say truly I am a coward. I am aware of that. I admit that I am all
that is detestable. If such a wretch as you describe were to love a
woman, what unhappiness for him! There could be no hope for him. He
would know his own irredeemable unworthiness, and so could only slink
away in shame.'

"'You are quite right,' she cried, laughing merrily. 'That would be the
only course for him to pursue.'

"'By the way,' I said, 'that reminds me that my train goes out in twenty
minutes.'

"I rose, and she also stood up to accompany me to the door. I held out
my hand. It was an unusual demonstration, and perhaps she thought it
meant good-by in earnest. At least, as she put her hand in mine, I
detected a look I had never before seen in the depths of those fine
eyes. With a sudden, unpremeditated, and irresistible