honestly say that until I accepted Arthur I had never thought of
anyone but you. Never. Not once. Can you realize now how this affair
of yours affected me? It hurt. If it had not been for that, do you
suppose I would have taken the prince in the fairy tale? You were my
prince."

"But," Loftus protested, "this affair, as you call it, came about only
_faute de mieux, faute de toi_. Why cannot I--why cannot we----?"

Fanny checked him again. "No, we cannot. Two years ago you said the
same thing to me. I forgave you then because I loved you. For the same
reason I forgive you now. But, however I care for you, never will I be
your mistress."

"Fanny----"

"No, never. If, as again and again you have told me during the past
few months, you still care for me, either you must love me openly or I
will not permit you to love me at all."

At the sudden horizon Loftus bent to her. "Let us go, then. In Europe
we can love before all the world."

Fanny drew back. "Particularly before all the half-world," she
answered with a sniff. "No. You misunderstand me. Perhaps, too, I
misunderstand you. Let my hand be."

"Fanny, I will do anything----"

"It is rather late to say that. But if I were free now, what would you
do? Would you repeat the invitation you have made?"

Loftus, his wonderful eyes looking deep into hers, answered quickly
and sweetly, "I would beg you to be my wife."

Fanny straightened herself. "Then give that girl her conge, give her a
dot too, send her abroad and let her marry some count."

"Very good, I will do so."

"When you have," said Fanny, "I will ask Arthur for a divorce."

"What?" And Loftus, with those wonderful eyes, stared in surprise. He
was in for it, let in for it, was his first impression. Yet at once,
on looking back, he realized that Fanny was incapable of trick of any
kind. "But," he objected, "supposing he refuses?"

"Then I will apply."

"But you can't, you see. He is good as gold."

"Oh, I don't mean here. I mean out West."

For a moment Loftus said nothing. Even in the West, he reflected,
divorce took time. Yet then, reflecting, too, that it would be very
gentlemanly of Annandale were he to go there and leave the coast free
for him, he smiled and remarked, with what seemed astounding
inappositeness, "I have been selling short."

"Ah!" said Fanny longly. "And what of it?"

"Unless the market turns I shall be out, God knows how much!"

"But what of it?" Yet even as she spoke she