sque. Because, after all, it was
grotesque that he should even argue with himself. She--before his eyes
and the eyes of all others--the most desirable of women; people dinning
it in one's ears that she was surrounded by besiegers who waited for her
to hold out her sceptre, and he--well, what was he! Not that his mental
attitude was that of a meek and humble lover who felt himself unworthy
and prostrated himself before her shrine with prayers--he was, on
the contrary, a stout and obstinate Briton finding his stubbornly-held
beliefs made as naught by a certain obsession--an intolerable longing
which wakened with him in the morning, which sank into troubled sleep
with him at night--the longing to see her, to speak to her, to stand
near her, to breathe the air of her. And possessed by this--full of the
overpowering strength of it--was a man likely to go to a woman and say,
"Give your life and desirableness to me; and incidentally support me,
feed me, clothe me, keep the roof over my head, as if I were an impotent
beggar"?

"No, by God!" he said. "If she thinks of me at all it shall be as a man.
No, by God, I will not sink to that!"

. . . . .

A moving touch of colour caught his eye. It was the rose of a parasol
seen above the laurel hedge, as someone turned into the walk. He knew
the colour of it and expected to see other parasols and hear voices. But
there was no sound, and unaccompanied, the wonderful rose-thing moved
towards him.

"The usual things are happening to me," was his thought as it advanced.
"I am hot and cold, and just now my heart leaped like a rabbit. It would
be wise to walk off, but I shall not do it. I shall stay here, because
I am no longer a reasoning being. I suppose that a horse who refuses to
back out of his stall when his stable is on fire feels something of the
same thing."

When she saw him she made an involuntary-looking pause, and then
recovering herself, came forward.

"I seem to have come in search of you," she said. "You ought to be
showing someone the view really--and so ought I."

"Shall we show it to each other?" was his reply.

"Yes." And she sat down on the stone seat which had been placed for the
comfort of view lovers. "I am a little tired--just enough to feel that
to slink away for a moment alone would be agreeable. It IS slinking to
leave Rosalie to battle with half the county. But I shall only stay a
few minutes."

She sat still and gazed at the beautiful lands spread b