ew of any place in it where they could dine. "Not that it really
matters," he added, "because we don't want anything very substantial."

She said that she supposed the inn would be the best place.

To the inn they therefore went, and while the innkeeper's wife prepared
tea for them and boiled a few eggs, they walked over to the village
church.

"Stephen has a flesh wound, no more, in the shoulder. Nobody else is
hurt," he said as they sauntered along. "I have dressed the wound, and a
doctor has been fetched. He was actually able to walk to the house. I
told them it was an accident, that I was not skilled in the use of
rook-rifles. Of course they believed me. Why shouldn't they? I want you
to promise not to show me up. It was all my fault, and I may surely be
allowed to come out of it with only an accident against my name?"

"I don't care who knows. I don't care what happens!" Cleopatra exclaimed
hoarsely. "You needn't imagine I want you to shield me. I did it on
purpose, and they must know I did it on purpose."

Lord Henry frowned. "Yes, quite so," he continued. "You have suffered so
much of late that you disbelieve in anything but unhappiness. You feel
it must be interminable. It was all my fault. You fancy that you are
alone, with a bitter hostile world arrayed against you. And since the
world is your enemy, what do you care what the enemy thinks of you? Very
natural too! That is what you feel. If only, if only, Leonetta had not
been so slow in walking home this morning! It was hard luck on me that
you should have been driven to this, because I was aiming at something
so very different. However, it seems even harder luck that you should
imagine that you were driven to it by me. But fancy! only a flesh wound
in the shoulder, and it's all over! God! how thankful I am. And they
must believe it was my accident. For did I not come to do you good, and
had I not succeeded?"

"Better have left me alone," exclaimed the girl with a bitter smile. "I
wish I could go away. I want to leave this hateful place!"

"Wherever you go, whatever you do, understand," said Lord Henry, "I am
going to stick close to you. So don't imagine you can drive me away."

She stopped a moment. They had reached the churchyard, and she extended
an arm to the nearest tree to steady herself.

"Why don't you leave me?" she demanded. "Can't you see that I have been
tormented enough? I hate everything and everybody! I want to forget; I
want to be alon