ke."

He paused.

"And this," said the Dean, "is all? This is, in fact, your answer to
me?"

Ashe made a sign of assent.

"Except," he added, with emotion, "that I have heard, only to-day, that
if Kitty wishes it, her old friend Miss French will go out to her at
once, nurse her, and travel with her as long as she pleases. Miss
French's brother has just married, and she is at liberty. She is most
deeply attached to Kitty, and as soon as she heard Lady Alice's
report of her state she forgot everything else. Can you not
persuade--Kitty"--he looked up urgently--"to accept her offer?"

"I doubt it," said the Dean, sadly. "There is only one thing she pines
for, and without it she will be a sick child crossed. Ah! well--well! So
to allow her to share your life again--however humbly and
intermittently--is impossible?"

It seemed to the Dean that a shudder passed through the man beside him.

"Impossible," said Ashe, sharply. "But not only for private reasons."

"You mean your public duty stands in the way?"

"Kitty left me of her own free will. I have put my hand to the plough
again--and I cannot turn back. You can see for yourself that I am not at
my own disposal--I belong to my party, to the men with whom I act, who
have behaved to me with the utmost generosity."

"Of course Lady Kitty could no longer share your public life. But at
Haggart--in seclusion?"

"You know what her personality is--how absorbing--how impossible to
forget! No--if she returned to me, on any terms whatever, all the old
conditions would begin again. I should inevitably have to leave
politics."

"And that--you are not prepared to do?"

The Dean wondered at his own audacity, and a touch of proud surprise
expressed itself in Ashe.

"I should have preferred to put it that I have accepted great tasks and
heavy responsibilities--and that I am not my own master."

The Dean watched him closely. Across the field of imagination there
passed the figure of one who "went away sorrowful, having
great possessions," and his heart--the heart of a child or a
knight-errant--burned within him.

But before he could speak again the door of the room opened and a lady
in black entered. Ashe turned towards her.

"Do you forbid me, William?" she said, quietly--"or may I join your
conversation?"

Ashe held out his hand and drew her to him. Lady Tranmore greeted her
old friend the Dean, and he looked at her overcome with emotion and
doubt.

"You have come