some indefinite past to her, and then the illusion was gone, and
the drama was all new. He caught her, but she fought herself away.

"Don't--don't!" she cried; "you have no right--now." She dropped
into the seat, while he stood over her with horror on his face. She
answered the question of his eyes, rocking her body as she spoke,
"Bob--do you understand now?" He shook his head, and she went on, "We
aren't engaged--not any more, Bob--not any more--never!" He started
to speak, but she said: "I'm going to marry Mr. Brownwell. Oh,
Bob--Bob, I told you I was unworthy--now do you understand?"

The man turned his face starward a second, and then dropped his head.
"Oh," he groaned, and then sat down beside her at the other end of the
bench. He folded his hands on his knees, and they sat silent for a
time, and then he asked in a dead voice, "You know I love you--still,
don't you, Molly?"

She answered, "Yes, that's what makes it hard."

"And do you love me?" he cried with eagerness.

She sat for a minute without replying and then answered, "I am a woman
now, Bob--a grown woman, and some way things are different."

They sat without speaking; then he drew a deep breath and said, "Well,
I suppose I ought to go." His head rested on his hand which was
supported by an arm of the chair. He did not offer to rise.

She rose and went to him, kneeling before him. She put her hands upon
his shoulders, and he put them aside, and she felt him shudder. She
moaned, and looked up at him. Her face was close to his, but he did
not come closer. He stared at her dumbly, and kept shaking his head as
if asking some mute question too deep for words. Then he put out his
hand and took hers. He put it against his cheek and held it in both
his own. She did not take her eyes from his face, but his eyes began
to wander.

"I will never see you again, Bob--I mean like this." She paused.

There was no life in his hands, and hers slipped away unrestrained.
"How sweet the lilacs smell to-night," he said as he drew in a deep
breath. He leaned back that he might breathe more freely, and added as
he sighed, "I shall smell them through eternity--Molly." Then he rose
and broke off a spray. He helped her rise and said, "Well--so this is
the way of it." His handsome fair face was white in the moonlight, and
she saw that his hair was thinning at the temples, and the strange
flash of familiarity with it all came again as she inhaled the
fragrance of the lilacs.