aking up a
fan, "we can talk."

He refused the chair which she had motioned him to wheel up to the fire.
He stood glowering down upon her, pale, stern, yet not wholly master of
himself. Against the sombre black of her dress, her neck and bosom shone
like alabaster. She played with her pearls, and looked up at him with
that faint maddening curl of the lips which he so loved and so hated.

"So you won't sit down. I wonder why a man always feels that he can
bully a woman so much better standing up."

"There is no question of bullying you," he answered shortly. "You are
responsible for my coming here. What is it that you want with me?"

"Suppose," she murmured, looking up at him, "that I were to say--another
kiss!"

"Suppose, on the other hand," he answered roughly, "you were to tell me
the truth."

She sighed gently.

"You jump so rapidly at conclusions," she declared. "Are you sure that
it would not be the truth!"

"If it were," he began fiercely.

"If it were," she interrupted, "well?"

"I would rather kiss Mademoiselle Rosine or whatever her name is," he
said. "I would sooner go out into the street and kiss the first woman I
met."

She shook her head.

"What an impossible person you are!" she murmured. "Of course, I don't
believe you."

He shrugged his shoulders, and glanced at the clock.

"Are you going to keep me here long?" he asked roughly. "I am going to
Paris to-morrow, and I have to pack my clothes."

"To Paris? With Mademoiselle Rosine?"

"Yes!"

She laughed softly.

"Oh! I think not," she declared. "That sort of thing wouldn't amuse you
a bit."

"We shall see!" he muttered.

"I am sure that you will not go," she repeated.

"Why not?" he demanded.

"Because--I beg you not to!"

"You!" he exclaimed. "You! Do you think that I am another of those
creatures of straw and putty, to dance to your whims, to be whistled to
your heel, to be fed with stray kisses, and an occasional kind word? I
think not! If I am to go to the Devil, I will go my own way."

"You inconsistent creature!" she said. "Why not mine?"

"I'll take my soul with me, such as it is," he answered. "I'll not make
away with it while my feet are on the earth."

"Do you know that you are really a very extraordinary person?" she said.

"What I am you are responsible for," he answered. "I was all right when
you first knew me. I may have been ignorant, perhaps, but at any rate I
was sincere. I had a conscience and an ideal