d some day you'll know it, too."

These words only incensed her the more.

"What you know--or think you know--is nothing to me. If you had
listened to me patiently, as I asked you to, instead of losing your
temper, and taking what I said as a personal affront, then, yes, then I
should have told you something else besides. How, when I came back, a
fortnight ago, I was quite resolved to marry this man, if he asked me
marry him and cut myself off for ever from my old life and its hateful
memories.--And why not? I'm still young. I still have a right to
pleasure--and change--and excitement.--And in all these days, I didn't
once hesitate--not till the letter came yesterday--and then not till
night. It wasn't like me; for when once I have made up my mind, I never
go back. So I determined to ask you--ask you to help me to decide. For
you had always been kind to me.--But this is what I get for doing it."
Her anger flared up anew. "You have treated me abominably, to-day,
Maurice; and I shan't forget it. All your ridiculous notions about
right and wrong don't matter a straw. What does matter is, that when I
ask for help, you should behave as if--as if I were going to commit a
crime. Your opinion is nothing to me. If I decide to marry the man, I
shall do it, no matter what you say."

"I'm sure you will."

"And if I don't, let me tell you this: it won't be because of anything
you've said to-day. Not from any high-flown notions of honesty, or
generosity, as you would like to make yourself believe; but merely
because I haven't the energy in me. I couldn't keep it up. I want to be
quiet, to have an easy life. The fact that some one else had to suffer,
too, wouldn't matter to me, in the least. It's myself I think of, first
and foremost, and as long as I live it will always be myself."

Her voice belied her words; he expected each moment that she would
burst out crying. However, she continued to walk on, with her head
erect; and she did not take back one of the unkind things she had said.

They parted without being reconciled. Maurice stood and watched her
mount the staircase, in the vain hope that she would turn, before
reaching the top.

He did not see how the fine May afternoon declined, and passed into
evening; how the high stacks of cloud were broken up at sunset, and
shredded into small flakes and strips of cloud, which, saturated with
gold, vanished in their turn: how the shadows in the corners turned
from blue to black; n