to where Harold lay, and, using my cage for a litter, slung on a young
fir-trunk, carried him back between them across their shoulders to the
village. He pleaded hard to be allowed to remain at the _chalet_, and
Elsie joined her prayers to his; but, there, I was adamant. It was not
so much what people might say that I minded, but a deeper difficulty.
For if once I nursed him through this trouble, how could I or any woman
in my place any longer refuse him? So I passed him ruthlessly on to
Lungern (though my heart ached for it), and telegraphed at once to his
nearest relative, Lady Georgina, to come up and take care of him.

He recovered rapidly. Though sore and shaken, his worst hurts, it turned
out, were sprains; and in three or four days he was ready to go on
again. I called to see him before he left. I dreaded the interview; for
one's own heart is a hard enemy to fight so long: but how could I let
him go without one word of farewell to him?

'After this, Lois,' he said, taking my hand in his--and I was weak
enough, for a moment, to let it lie there--'you _cannot_ say No to me!'

Oh, how I longed to fling myself upon him and cry out, 'No, Harold, I
cannot! I love you too dearly!' But his future and Marmaduke Ashurst's
half million restrained me: for his sake and for my own I held myself in
courageously. Though, indeed, it needed some courage and self-control. I
withdrew my hand slowly. 'Do you remember,' I said, 'you asked me that
first day at Schlangenbad'--it was an epoch to me now, that first
day--'whether I was mediaeval or modern? And I answered, "Modern, I
hope." And you said, "That's well!"-- You see, I don't forget the least
things you say to me. Well, because I am modern--'my lips trembled and
belied me--'I can answer you No. I can even now refuse you. The
old-fashioned girl, the mediaeval girl, would have held that because she
saved your life (if I _did_ save your life, which is a matter of
opinion) she was bound to marry you. But _I_ am modern, and I see things
differently. If there were reasons at Schlangenbad which made it
impracticable for me to accept you--though my heart pleaded hard--I do
not deny it--those reasons cannot have disappeared merely because you
have chosen to fall over a precipice, and I have pulled you up again. My
decision was founded, you see, not on passing accidents of situation,
but on permanent considerations. Nothing has happened in the last three
days to affect those considerati