you equivocal answers, didn't I?'

'I don't know; all I know is, that I shall never forget these days,
though they can never come again, answered Walter. 'I am learning German
this winter, and I like it very much.'

'How delightful! If you go on at this rate, in a very short time I shall
be afraid to speak to you, you will have grown such a grand and clever
gentleman.'

Walter gave his head a quick shake, which made the waved mass of his
dark hair drop farther on his brow. A fine brow it was, square, solid,
massive, from beneath which looked out a pair of clear eyes, which had
never feared the face of man. He looked older than his years, though his
face was bare, except on the upper lip, where the slight moustache
appeared to soften somewhat the sterner line of the mouth. Yes, it was a
good, true face, suggestive of power and possibility--the face of an
honest man. Then his figure had attained its full height, and being
clothed in well-made garments, looked very manly, and not ungraceful.
Gladys admired him where he stood, and inwardly contrasted him with a
certain other youth, who devoted half his attention to his personal
appearance and adornment. Nor did Walter suffer by that comparison.

'Must you go away?' she asked wistfully, not conscious how cruel she was
in seeking to keep him there when every moment was pointed with a
sorrowful regret, a keen anguish of loss which he could scarcely endure.
'And when will you come again?'

'Oh, I don't know. I can't come often, Gladys; it will be better not,
now.'

'It is always better not,' she cried, with a strange petulance. 'There
is always something in the way. If you knew how often I want to talk to
you about all my plans. I always think nobody quite understands us like
those whom we have known in our early days, because then there can
never be any pretence or concealment. All is open as the day. Is it
impossible that we can still be as we were?'

'Quite impossible.' His answer was curt and cold, and he was on his feet
again, moving towards the door.

'But why?' she persisted, with all the unreason of a wilful woman. 'May
a woman not have a friend, though he should be a man?'

'It would not be possible, and _he_ would not like it,' he said
significantly; and Gladys flushed all over, and flung up her head with a
gesture of defiance.

'He shall not dictate to me,' she said proudly. 'Well, if you will go,
you will, I suppose, but you shall not walk; on that point