led. Her solitude was of her own choosing, and no one had the
right to break in upon it. It was perhaps her way of doing penance;
and, at this thought, he felt a thrill of satisfaction.

At night, he consoled himself that things would seem different in the
morning; but when he wakened from a restless sleep, crowded with dreams
one more grotesque than another, he was still prone to be gloomy. He
could think more clearly by daylight--that was all: his pitying
sympathy for her had only increased. It interfered with everything he
did; just as it had formerly done--just in the old way. And he had been
on the brink of believing himself grown indifferent, and stronger in
common sense. Fool that he was! Only a word was needed to bring his
card-house down. The placidity of the past weeks had been a mere
coating of thin ice, which had given way beneath the first test. A
distrust of himself took him, a distrust so deep that it amounted to
aversion; for in his present state of mind he discerned only a
despicable weakness. But though he was thus bewildered at his own
inconsistency, he was still assured that he would not approach
Louise--not, that is, unless she sent for him. So much control he still
had over his actions: and he went so far as to make his staying away a
touchstone of his stability. This, too, although reason told him the
end of it all would be, that Louise would actually leave Leipzig,
without sending for him, or even remembering his existence.

He worked steadily enough. A skilled observer might have remarked a
slight contraction of the corners of his mouth; none of his friends,
however, noticed anything, with the exception of Madeleine, and all she
said was: "You look so cross sometimes. Is anything the matter?"

Late one afternoon, they were on the ice as usual. While Madeleine
talked to Dickensey, Maurice practised beside them. In making a
particularly complicated gyration, he all but overbalanced himself, and
his cap fell on the ice. As he was brushing the snow off it, he chanced
to raise his eyes. A number of people were standing on the wooden
bridge, watching the skaters; to the front, some children climbed and
pushed on the wooden railing. His eye was ranging carelessly over them,
when he started so violently that he again let his cap drop. He picked
it up, threw another hasty look at the bridge, then turned and skated
some distance away, where he could see without being seen. Yes, he had
not been mistaken;