d of silence about
business affairs had passed by; but Alan was so very far from strong
when November ended that she had managed, by persuasion and insistence,
to defer any new and definite arrangement for at least another
fortnight. But he had gained much physical and mental strength during
those two weeks, and he had felt more and more convinced from day to day
that between himself and Lettice there must now be a complete
understanding. He knew that she had taken the house until the end of
December; after that date she would be homeless, like himself. What were
they both to do? It was the question which he had come to put.

Lettice received him with a touch of surprise, almost of embarrassment
in her manner. She had never made him free of her study, for she felt it
better that each should have a separate domain for separate work and a
separate life. She had no wish to break down more barriers than
circumstances demanded; and the fact that she had utterly outraged the
laws of conventionality in the eyes of the world did not absolve her
from the delicate reticence which she had always maintained in her
personal relations with Alan. He saw the doubt in her face, and hastened
to apologize for his intrusion. "But I could not work this morning," he
said, "and I wanted to speak to you. Milly told me you were here,
and----"

"Oh, I am very glad to see you. Come and sit down."

"You are not too busy for a little talk?"

"Not at all."

She wheeled the leather-covered chair a little nearer to the fire, and
made him sit down on it. He cast his eye round the cheery room, noting
the books and papers that she was using, the evidences of steady work
and thought. The firelight leaped and glanced on the ruddy walls, and
the coals crackled in the grate; a dash of rain against the window, a
blast of wind in the distance, emphasized the contrast between the
warmth and light and restfulness within the house, the coldness and the
storm without.

Alan held his hands to the blaze, and listened for a moment to the wind
before he spoke.

"One does not feel inclined," he said, "to turn out on such a day as
this."

"Happily, you have no need to turn out," Lettice answered, taking his
words in their most literal sense.

"Not to day, perhaps; but very soon. Lettice, the time has come when we
must decide on our next step. I cannot stay here any longer--on our
present terms, at least. But I have not come to say good-bye. Is there
any rea