of Mrs. Burrage. This shame
was possible to him even while he was conscious of what a mean business
it was to practise upon human imbecility, how much better it was even to
be seedy and obscure, discouraged about one's self. He had been born to
the prospect of a fortune, and in spite of the years of misery that
followed the war had never rid himself of the belief that a gentleman
who desired to unite himself to a charming girl couldn't yet ask her to
come and live with him in sordid conditions. On the other hand it was no
possible basis of matrimony that Verena should continue for his
advantage the exercise of her remunerative profession; if he should
become her husband he should know a way to strike her dumb. In the midst
of this an irrepressible desire urged him on to taste, for once, deeply,
all that he was condemned to lose, or at any rate forbidden to attempt
to gain. To spend a day with her and not to see her again--that
presented itself to him at once as the least and the most that was
possible. He did not need even to remind himself that young Mr. Burrage
was able to offer her everything _he_ lacked, including the most amiable
adhesion to her views.

"It will be charming in the Park to-day. Why not take a stroll with me
there as I did with you in the little park at Harvard?" he asked, when
Olive had disappeared.

"Oh, I have seen it, very well, in every corner. A friend of mine kindly
took me to drive there yesterday," Verena said.

"A friend?--do you mean Mr. Burrage?" And Ransom stood looking at her
with his extraordinary eyes. "Of course, I haven't a vehicle to drive
you in; but we can sit on a bench and talk." She didn't say it was Mr.
Burrage, but she was unable to say it was not, and something in her face
showed him that he had guessed. So he went on: "Is it only with him you
can go out? Won't he like it, and may you only do what he likes? Mrs.
Luna told me he wants to marry you, and I saw at his mother's how he
stuck to you. If you are going to marry him, you can drive with him
every day in the year, and that's just a reason for your giving me an
hour or two now, before it becomes impossible." He didn't mind much what
he said--it had been his plan not to mind much to-day--and so long as he
made her do what he wanted he didn't care much how he did it. But he saw
that his words brought the colour to her face; she stared, surprised at
his freedom and familiarity. He went on, dropping the hardness, the
ir