looked more than once. She was surrounded by handsomer women in more
elaborate toilettes and more splendid equipages. Her cheeks were pale,
and she was undoubtedly thin. Nevertheless, to other people as well as
to him, she was a personality. Even then he seemed to feel the little
stir which always passed like electricity into the air directly her
carriage was stayed. When she had come, when he was perfectly sure of
her, and indeed under the spell of her near presence, he drew that
note again from his pocket and read it.

"18, LARGE STREET, W.
"12.30.

"I told you a lie! and I feel that you will never forgive
me! Yet I want to explain it. There is something I want you
to know! Will you come and see me? I shall be at home until
one o'clock to-morrow morning, or, if the afternoon suits
you better, from 4 to 6.

"BERENICE."

A lie! Yes, it was that. To him, an inveterate lover of truth, the
offence had seemed wholly unpardonable. He had set himself to forget
the woman and the incident as something altogether beneath his
recollection. The night, with its host of strange, half-awakened
sensations, was a memory to be lived down, to be crushed altogether.
For him, doubtless, that lie had been a providence. It put a stop to
any further intercourse between them,--it stamped her at once with the
hall-mark of unworthiness. Yet he knew that he was disappointed;
disappointment was, perhaps, a mild word. He had walked through the
streets with Ellison, after that meeting with her at the theatre,
conscious of an unwonted buoyancy of spirits, feeling that he had
drawn into his life a new experience which promised to be a very
pleasant one.

There were things about the woman which had not pleased him, but they
were, on the whole, merely superficial incidents, accidents he chose
to think, of her environment. He had even permitted himself to look
forward to their next meeting, to a definite continuance of their
acquaintance. Standing in the doorway of the brilliantly lighted
Milan, he had looked in at the vivid little scene with a certain eager
tolerance,--there was much, after all, that was attractive in this
side of life, so much that was worth cultivating; he blamed himself
that he had stood aloof from it for so long.

Then their eyes had met, he had seen her sudden start, had felt his
heart sink like le