at he could scarcely
hear.

"Cannot even like me!"

"Oh, do not ask me that! I cannot answer you. If liking were all--but
you would not be content with that."

"Say that you like me. Lettice, have a little pity on the heart that
loves you!"

"What answer can I give? An hour ago I liked you. Do you not see that
what you have said makes the old liking impossible?"

"Yes--I know it. And I have thrown away all because I wanted more! I
spoke too suddenly. But do not, at any rate, forbid me still to nurse my
hope. I will try and be patient. I will come to you again for my
answer--when? In a month--in six months? Tell me only one thing--there
is no one who has forestalled me? You are not pledged to another?"

Lettice stood up--the effort was necessary in order to control her
beating heart and trembling nerves. She did not reply. She only looked
out to the sunlit landscape with wide, unseeing eyes, in which lurked a
secret, unspoken dread.

"Tell me before we part," he said, in a voice which was hoarse with
suppressed passion. "Say there is no one to whom you have given your
love!"

"There is no one!"--But the answer ended in a gasp that was almost a
sob.

"Thank God!" said Brooke Dalton, as a look of infinite relief came into
his face. "Then a month to-day I will return to you, wherever you may
be, and ask for my answer again."

Mrs. Hartley and Edith came back from the garden terraces. With kindly
mischief in their hearts, they had left these two together, watching
them with half an eye, until they saw that the matter had come to a
climax. When Lettice stood up, they divined that the moment had come for
their reappearance.

Lettice advanced to meet them, and when they were near enough Edith
passed her hand through her friend's still trembling arm.

"Those dear little Italian children!" said Mrs. Hartley. "They are so
beautiful--so full of life and spirits, I could have looked at them for
another hour. Now, good people, what is going to be done? We must be
getting home. Brooke, can you see the carriage? You might find it, and
tell the driver to come back for us."

Brooke started off with alacrity, and the women were left alone. Then
Edith began to chatter about nothing, in the most resolute fashion, in
order that Lettice might have time to pull herself together.

She was glad of their consideration, for indeed she needed all her
fortitude. What meant this suffocation of the heart, which almost
prevented her