inner, saying things that he had to
answer without knowing what they signified. He realized, with a sense of
shock, that he was deprived of all interests in life but one; not even
his work had any meaning apart from HER. It lit no fire within him to
hear Mrs. Ercott praise certain execrable pictures in the Royal Academy,
which she had religiously visited the day before leaving home. And as
the interminable meal wore on, he began even to feel grief and wonder
that Olive could be so smiling, so gay, and calm; so, as it seemed to
him, indifferent to this intolerable impossibility of exchanging even one
look of love. Did she really love him--could she love him, and show not
one little sign of it? And suddenly he felt her foot touch his own. It
was the faintest sidelong, supplicating pressure, withdrawn at once, but
it said: 'I know what you are suffering; I, too, but I love you.'
Characteristically, he felt that it cost her dear to make use of that
little primitive device of common loves; the touch awoke within him only
chivalry. He would burn for ever sooner than cause her the pain of
thinking that he was not happy.

After dinner, they sat out on a balcony. The stars glowed above the
palms; a frog was croaking. He managed to draw his chair so that he
could look at her unseen. How deep, and softly dark her eyes, when for a
second they rested on his! A moth settled on her knee--a cunning little
creature, with its hooded, horned owl's face, and tiny black slits of
eyes! Would it have come so confidingly to anyone but her? The Colonel
knew its name--he had collected it. Very common, he said. The interest
in it passed; but Lennan stayed, bent forward, gazing at that
silk-covered knee.

The voice of Mrs. Ercott, sharper than its wont, said: "What day does
Robert say he wants you back, my dear?"

He managed to remain gazing at the moth, even to take it gently from her
knee, while he listened to her calm answer.

"Tuesday, I believe."

Then he got up, and let the moth fly into the darkness; his hands and
lips were trembling, and he was afraid of their being seen. He had never
known, had not dreamed, of such a violent, sick feeling. That this man
could thus hale her home at will! It was grotesque, fantastic, awful,
but--it was true! Next Tuesday she would journey back away from him to
be again at the mercy of her Fate! The pain of this thought made him
grip the railing, and grit his teeth, to keep himself fro