man pretty well."

And he explained to her that as a boy he had spent a year in Germany
before going to Yale. She scarcely listened, so absorbed was she in the
official letter.

"When must you go?" she said at last, looking up.

"At the end of next week, I'm afraid."

"And how long will it be?"

"That I don't know. But three or four months certainly. It will put off
our wedding, dearest, a bit. But you'd like me to go, wouldn't you? I
should be at the hub of things."

The colour rushed into her cheeks.

"_Must you go_?"

Her manner amazed him. He had expected that one so ambitious and
energetic in her own way of life would have greeted his news with
eagerness. The proposal was really a great compliment to him--and a great
chance.

"I don't see how I could refuse it," he said with an altered countenance.
"Indeed--I don't think I could."

She dropped her face into her hands, and stared into the fire. In some
trouble of mind, he knelt down beside her, and put his arm round her.

"I'll write every day. It won't be long, darling."

She shook her head, and he felt a shudder run through her.

"It's silly of me--I don't know why--but--I'm just afraid--"

"Afraid of what?"

She smiled at him tremulously--but he saw the tears in her eyes.

"I told you--I can't always help it. I'm a fool, I suppose--but--"

Then she threw her arms round his neck--murmuring in his ear: "You'll
have time to think--when you're away from me--that it was a great
pity--you ever asked me."

He kissed and scolded her, till she smiled again. Afterwards she made a
strong effort to discuss the thing reasonably. Of course he must go--it
would be a great opening--a great experience. And they would have all the
more time to consider their own affairs. But all the evening afterwards
he felt in some strange way that he had struck her a blow from which she
was trying in vain to rally. Was it all the effect of her suffering at
that brute's hands--aided by the emotion and strain of the recent scenes
between herself and him?

As for her, when she turned back from the gate where she had bid him
good-bye, she saw Janet in the doorway waiting for her almost with a
sense of exasperation. She had not yet said one word to Janet. That
plunge was all to take!

XIV

Rachel woke the following morning in that dreary mood when all the colour
and the glamour seem to have been washed out of life, and the hopes and
dreams which keep up a perpetua