ia gave a scornful snort.

"Are you tired of life?"

"I? Yes. It is absurd. I have no place in it, no tie, nothing to bind me
to my fellows or my race. What do they care for a faded, fretful woman?"

"You know how your friends care for you, Valeria. You know, for
instance, what you have been in my life."

"Ah, my dear, I _don't_ know! I have a wretched longing for some strong,
absorbing affection, something paramount, satisfying. I envy you your
devotion to that poor little child; you can shew it, you can express it,
and you have the child's love in return. But I, who want much more than
that, shall never get even that. I threw away the chance when I had it,
and now I shall end my days, starving."

Hadria was silent. She felt that these words covered something more than
their ostensible meaning.

"I fear Professor Fortescue is very ill," said Valeria restlessly.

Her face was flushed, and her eyes burnt.

"I fear he is," said Hadria sadly.

"If--if he were to die----" Hadria gave a low, horrified exclamation.

"Surely there is no danger of that!"

"Of course there is: he told me that he did not expect to recover."

Valeria was crouching before the fire, with a look of blank despair.
Hadria, pale to the lips, took her hand gently and held it between her
own. Valeria's eyes suddenly filled with tears. "Ah, Hadria, you will
understand, you will not despise me--you will only be sorry for me--why
should I not tell you? It is eating my heart out--have you never
suspected, never guessed----?"

Hadria, with a startled look, paused to consider, and then, stroking
back the beautiful white hair with light touch, she said, "I think I
have known without knowing that I knew. It wanted just these words of
yours to light up the knowledge. Oh, Valeria, have you carried this
burden for all these years?"

"Ever since I first met him, which was just before he met his wife. I
knew, from the first, that it was hopeless. He introduced her to me
shortly after his engagement. He was wrapped up in her. With him, it was
once and for all. He is not the man to fall in love and out of it, over
and over again. We were alike in that. With me, too, it was once for
all. Oh, the irony of life!" Valeria went on with an outburst of energy,
"I was doomed to doom others to similar loss; others have felt for me,
in vain, what I, in vain, felt for him! I sent them all away, because I
could not bring myself to endure the thought of marrying any