. What was happening now was that he was strong and he was
being broken. It was a painful process, because there was a good deal of
him to break, and it had only just begun. However, this was mercifully
hidden from him. He said to himself: "I dare say I'm run down and
fidgety with having had to sit up with Bouncing. I shall feel all right
to-morrow." Then the door behind him opened, and Lionel joined him. He
was still dressed as he had been when he came back from the ball some
hours earlier.

"Hullo!" he said. "I wondered if that was you; I thought I heard
something stirring outside. You weren't in your room when I came in.
Been with Bouncing?"

"Yes," said Winn; "he's dead. I'm looking for some coffee. These
confounded, tow-headed Swiss mules never get up at any decent hour. Why
are you still dressed? Nothing wrong, is there?"

"Well, I didn't feel particularly sleepy, somehow," Lionel acknowledged.
"Are you going to stand outside in this moth-eaten passage the rest of
the night, or will you come in with me and have a whisky and soda? You
must be fagged out."

"I don't mind if I do," Winn agreed. "We may as well make a night of
it."

For a few minutes neither of them spoke, then Winn said: "Had a jolly
dance?"

Lionel did not answer him directly; but he turned round, and met his
friend's eyes with his usual unswerving honesty.

"Look here, old Winn," he said, "it's up to you to decide now. I'll stay
on here or go with you, whichever you like."

"You like her, then?" Winn asked quickly.

"Yes," said Lionel, "I like her."

"Well, then, you'll stay of course," said Winn without any hesitation.
"Isn't that what we damned well settled?"

Lionel's eyes had changed. They were full of a new light; he looked as
if some one had lit a lantern within him. Love had come to him not as it
had come to Winn, bitterly, unavailingly, without illusion; it had
fallen upon his free heart and lit it from end to end with joy. He loved
as a man loves whose heart is clean and who has never loved before,
without a scruple and without restraint. Love had made no claims on him
yet; it had not offered him either its disappointments or its great
rewards. He was transformed without being altered. He simply saw
everything as glorious which before had been plain, but he did not see
different things.

"Yes," he said, "I know we talked about it; but I'm hanged if I'll try
unless I'm sure you are absolutely keen. I thought it all out
afte