he is here to kill
himself---"

"No, no--bless my soul, he doesn't INTEND to kill himself"--said Gwent,
testily--"He's not such a fool as all that! Now look here!--try and be
a sensible girl! The man is busy with an invention--a discovery--which
might do him harm--I don't say it WILL--but it MIGHT. You've heard of
bombs, haven't you?--timed to explode at a given moment?"

Manella nodded--her lips trembled, and she clasped her hands nervously
across her bosom.

"Well!--I believe--I won't say it for certain,--that he's got something
worse than that!" said Gwent, impressively--"And that's why he was
chosen to live up on that hill in the 'hut of the dying' away from
everybody. See? And--of course--anything may happen at any moment. He's
plucky enough, and is not the sort of man to involve any other man in
trouble--and that's why he stays alone. Now you know! So you can put
away your romantic notions of his being 'in love'! A very good thing
for him if he were! It might draw him away from his present occupation.
In fact, the best that could happen to him would be that you should
make him fall in love with YOU!"

She gave a little cry.

"With ME?"

"Yes, with you! Why not? Why don't you manage it? A beautiful woman
like you could win the game in less than a week?"

She shook her head sorrowfully.

"You do not know him!" she said--"But--HE knows!"

"Knows what?"

She gave a despairing little gesture.

"That I love him!"

"Ah! That's a pity!" said Gwent--"Men are curious monsters in their
love-appetites; they always refuse the offered dish and ask for
something that isn't in the bill of fare. You should have pretended to
hate him!"

"I could not pretend THAT!" said Manella, sadly--"But if I could, it
would not matter. He does not want a woman."

"Oh, doesn't he?" Gwent was amused at her quaint way of putting it.
"Well, he's the first man I ever heard of, that didn't! That's all
bunkum, my good girl! Probably he's crying for the moon!"

"What is that?" she asked, wistfully.

"Crying for the moon? Just hankering after what can't be got. Lots of
men are afflicted that way. But they've been known to give up crying
and content themselves with something else."

"HE would never content himself!" she said--"If she--the woman that
came here, is the moon, he will always want her. Even _I_ want her!"

"You?" exclaimed Gwent, amazed.

"Yes! I want to see her again!" A puzzled look contracted her brows.
"Since she