nic smile.

"Seven weeks is a long time," she added.

"Seven weeks!--and for a lifetime!"

"Oh, one can get to know a man inside out, in seven weeks," she said,
with wilful flippancy. "Especially if, from the first, he shows so
plainly ... Maurice, don't be angry. You have always been kind to me;
you're not going to fail me now that I really need help? I have no one
else, as you very well know." She smiled at him, and held out her hand.
He could not refuse to take it; but he let it drop again immediately.

"Let me tell you all about it, and how it happened, and then you will
understand," Louise went on, in a persuasive voice--he had once
believed that the sound of this voice would reconcile him to any fate.
"You think the time was short, but we were together every day, and
sometimes all day long. I knew from the first that he cared for me; he
made no secret of it. If anything, it is a proof of tactfulness on his
part that he should have written rather than have spoken to me himself.
I like him for doing it, for giving me time. And then, listen, Maurice,
what I should gain by marrying him. He is rich, really rich, and
good-looking--in an American way--and thirty-two years old. His sisters
would welcome me--one of them told me as much, and told me, too, that
her brother had never cared for anyone before. He would make an ideal
husband," she added with a sudden recklessness, at the sight of
Maurice's unmoved face. "Americanly chivalrous to the fingertips, and
with just enough of the primitive animal in him to ward off monotony."

Maurice raised his hand, as if in self-defence. "So you, too, then,
like any other woman, would marry just for the sake of marrying?" he
asked, with bitter disbelief.

"Yes.--And just especially and particularly I."

"For Heaven's sake, let us get out of here!"

Without listening to her protest, he went to find the waiter. Louise
followed him out of the enclosure, carrying hat and gloves in her hand.

They struck into narrow by-paths going back, to avoid the people. But
it was impossible to escape all, and those they met, eyed them with
curiosity. The clear English voices rang out unconcerned; the pale girl
with the Italian eyes was visibly striving to appease her companion,
who marched ahead, angry and impassive.

For a few hundred yards neither of them spoke. Then Louise began anew.

"And that is not all. You judge harshly and unfairly because you don't
know the facts. I am almost qu