se waiting, in aching
suspense, for several hours. It now came out that, after their
disagreement of the previous night, she had confidently expected him to
return to her early in the day, had expected contrition and atonement.
That he had not even suspected this made her doubly bitter against him.
In vain he tried to excuse himself, to offer explanations. She would
not listen to him, nor would she let him touch her. She tore her dress
from between his fingers, brushed his hand off her arm; and, retreating
into a corner of the room, where she stood like an animal at bay, she
poured out over him her accumulated resentment. All she had ever
suffered at his hands, all the infinitesimal differences there had been
between them, from the beginning, the fine points in which he had
failed--things of which he had no knowledge--all these were raked up
and cast at him till, numb with pain, he lost even the wish to comfort
her. Sitting down at the table, he laid his head on his folded arms.

At his feet were the fragments of the little clock, which, in her anger
at his desertion of her, she had trodden to pieces.

VI.

Their first business the next morning was to buy another clock. By
daylight, Louise was full of remorse at what she had done, and in
passing the writing-table, averted her eyes. They went out early to a
shop in the GRIMMAISCHESTRASSE; and Maurice stood by and watched her
make her choice.

She loved to buy, and entered into the purchase with leisurely
enjoyment. The shopman and his assistant spared themselves no trouble
in fetching and setting out their wares. Louise handled each clock as
it was put before her, discussed the merits of different styles, and a
faint colour mounted to her cheeks over the difficulty of deciding
between two which she liked equally well. She had pushed up her veil;
it swathed her forehead like an Eastern woman's. Her eagerness, which
was expressed in a slight unsteadiness of nostril and lip, would have
had something childish in it, had it not been for her eyes. They
remained heavy and unsmiling; and the disquieting half-rings below them
were more bluely brown than ever. Leaning sideways against the counter,
Maurice looked away from them to her hands; her fingers were entirely
without ornament, and he would have liked to load them with rings. As
it was, he could not even pay for the clock she chose; it cost more
than he had to spend in a month.

In the street again, she said sh