stand though you tried. All you
others lead such quiet lives; you know nothing of what goes on in a
life like mine. Every day I ask myself why I have not thrown myself out
of the window, or over one of the bridges into the river, and put an
end to it."

Wrapped up though she was in herself, she could not help smiling at his
frank gesture of dismay.

"Don't be afraid," she said, and the smile lingered on her lips. "I
shall never do it. I'm too fond of life, and too afraid of death. But
at least," she caught herself up again, "you will see how ridiculous it
is for you to talk to me of your peace of mind. Peace of mind! I have
never even been passably content. Something is always wanting.
To-night, for instance, I feel so much energy in me, and I can make
nothing of it--nothing! If I were a man, I should walk for hours,
bareheaded, through the woods. But to be a woman ... to be cooped up
inside four walls ... when the night itself is not large enough to hold
it all!----"

She threw out her hands to emphasise her helplessness, then let them
drop to her sides again. There was a silence, for Maurice could not
think of anything to say; her fluency made him tongue-tied. He
struggled with his embarrassment until they were all but within earshot
of the rest, at the bottom of the street.

"If I ... if you would let me ... There is nothing in the world I
wouldn't do to help you," he ended fervently.

She did not reply; they had reached the corner where the others waited.
There was a general leave-taking. Through a kind of mist, Maurice saw
that Ephie's face still wore a hostile look; and she hardly moved her
lips when she bade him good-night.

Madeleine drew her own conclusions as she walked the rest of the way
home between two pale and silent people. She had seen, on coming out of
the theatre, that Louise was in one of her bad moods--a fact easily to
be accounted for by Schilsky's absence. Maurice had evidently been made
to suffer under it, too, for not a syllable was to be drawn from him,
and, after several unavailing attempts she let him alone.

As they crossed the ROSSPLATZ, which lay wide and deserted in the
starlight, Louise said abruptly: "Suppose, instead of going home, we
walk to Connewitz?"

At this proposal, and at Maurice's seconding of it, Madeleine laughed
with healthy derision.

"That is just like one of your crazy notions," she said "What a
creature you are! For my part, I decline with thanks. I have to