r of your heart for me?"

She slowly gave him a painful look of acquiescence. "Will you be brave,
and sacrifice yourself to the poor man who loves you? He will save you
from useless solitude, or from a worldly marriage--I cannot bear to
think of either as your fate."

"I do not care for Mr. Erskine," she said, hardly able to control her
voice; "but I will marry him if you wish it."

"I do wish it earnestly, Gertrude."

"Then, you have my promise," she said, again with some bitterness.

"But you will not forget me? Erskine will have all but that--a tender
recollection--nothing."

"Can I do more than I have just promised?"

"Perhaps so; but I am too selfish to be able to conceive anything more
generous. Our renunciation will bind us to one another as our union
could never have done."

They exchanged a long look. Then he took out his watch, and began to
speak of the length of their journey, now nearly at an end. When they
arrived in London the first person they recognized on the platform was
Mr. Jansenius.

"Ah! you got my telegram, I see," said Trefusis. "Many thanks for
coming. Wait for me whilst I put this lady into a cab."

When the cab was engaged, and Gertrude, with her maid, stowed within, he
whispered to her hurriedly:

"In spite of all, I have a leaden pain here" (indicating his heart).
"You have been brave, and I have been wise. Do not speak to me, but
remember that we are friends always and deeply."

He touched her hand, and turned to the cabman, directing him whither to
drive. Gertrude shrank back into a corner of the vehicle as it departed.
Then Trefusis, expanding his chest like a man just released from some
cramping drudgery, rejoined Mr. Jansenius.

"There goes a true woman," he said. "I have been persuading her to take
the very best step open to her. I began by talking sense, like a man of
honor, and kept at it for half an hour, but she would not listen to me.
Then I talked romantic nonsense of the cheapest sort for five minutes,
and she consented with tears in her eyes. Let us take this hansom. Hi!
Belsize Avenue. Yes; you sometimes have to answer a woman according to
her womanishness, just as you have to answer a fool according to his
folly. Have you ever made up your mind, Jansenius, whether I am an
unusually honest man, or one of the worst products of the social
organization I spend all my energies in assailing--an infernal
scoundrel, in short?"

"Now pray do not be absurd," said Mr.