the scorn did not hurt. "How you could believe her, when she told
you that what I did for you was from duty, I can't conceive. If you were
the heroine of one of Basil's novels there might be some excuse for you.
Heroines of stories always believe any wild thing the villain or
villainess chooses to tell them, but a real girl, with brains and eyes
and at least some common sense----"

"Do you think when you're in love your common sense can stay on top?" I
asked. "It seemed too good to be true that you could love me, and she
was far more fascinating than I! And you knew and liked her first, and
had asked her to take a long motor trip with you: and it _was_ true that
you quarrelled about me. Looking back it all seemed so natural,
especially remembering how you kept away from me and schemed--actually
_schemed_--to have me go about with other men, why shouldn't I believe a
woman _much_ older than I, when she _cried_ as she told me the story?
Why, at this very place, after you'd been so heavenly to me in the
Abbey, you were horrid next day, almost cross: and so you were often.
You hurt my feelings a dozen times a day, and every other man I saw was
kinder."

"Because they weren't fighting a great fight with themselves, as I was,"
he said, holding me a little more closely, if possible. "They, the
selfish chaps, were letting themselves go. I was saying to myself,
'Perhaps I'm too old and hard for her. I'm the first man she's ever
known. I must give her a chance to see and talk with others. For her own
sake, I mustn't yield to temptation and try to snatch her away from the
rest. Norman must have his chance. Douglas must have his chance. The
American boys must have theirs----' and by Jove, you seemed to like
giving it to them! You nearly drove me out of my mind."

"I thought you were being bored with me."

"You darling, adorable little idiot, as if a man could be bored with
you!"

"I didn't know."

"Well, you know now. I was nearly mad in Edinburgh, but I stuck to my
principles. I wanted to be sure one way or the other. But Norman had no
gratitude. He used your mother to help him against me----"

"That was Mrs. West, I think, who used her."

"Don't defend the fellow. It was both of them. They--and James sending
for his wife--drove me into a corner. But I wasn't going to be swept off
the board without a struggle. I meant from the beginning to fight for
you, if I saw a gleam of interest in your eyes for me, and sometimes I
t