e no longer: he put on his hat and coat, and went out. He felt
tired and unslept, and dragged along as if his body were a weight to
him. A fine snow was falling, which froze into icicles on the beards of
the passers-by, and on the glistening pavements. The distance had never
seemed so long to him; it had also never seemed so short.

A faint and foolish hope still refused to be extinguished. But it went
out directly he had unlocked the door; and he learned what he had come
to learn, without the exchange of a word. The truth met him, that he
should have been here hours ago, commanding, imploring; instead of
which he had sat at home, nursing a futile and paltry pride.

The room was warm, and bright with extra candles. It was also in that
state of confusion which accompanied an elaborate toilet on the part of
Louise. Fully dressed, she stood before the console-glass, and arranged
something in her hair. She did not turn at his entrance, but she raised
her eyes and met his in the mirror, without pausing in what she was
doing.

He looked over her shoulder at her reflected face. The cold steadiness,
the open hostility of her look, took his strength away. He sat down on
the foot-end of the bed, and put his head in his hands. Minutes passed,
and still he remained in this position. For what was the use of his
speaking? Her mind was made up; nothing would move her now.

Then came the noise of wheels in the street below. Uncovering his eyes,
Maurice looked at her again; and, as he did so, his feelings which,
until now, had had something of the nature of a personal wound, gave
place to others with the rush of a storm. She wore the same sparkling,
low-cut dress as on the previous occasion; arms and shoulders were as
ruthlessly bared to view. He remembered what he had heard said of her
that night, and felt that his powers of endurance were at an end. With
a stifled exclamation, he got up from the bed, and going past her, into
the half of the room beyond the screen, caught up the first object that
came to hand, and threw it to the floor. It was a Dresden-china figure,
and broke to pieces.

Louise gave a cry, and came running out to see what he had done. "Are
you mad? How dare you! ... break my things."

She held a candle above her head, and by its light, he saw, in the skin
of neck and shoulder, all the lines and folds that were formed by the
raising of her arm. He now saw, too, that her hair was dressed in a
different way, that h