ith the dream foregone, foregone,
The deed foreborne for ever,
The worm regret will canker on,
And time will turn him never."

Professor Theobald shifted his position slightly.

"Ah, well it were to love, my love,
And cheat of any laughter
The fate beneath us and above,
The dark before and after.

"The myrtle and the rose, the rose,
The sunlight and the swallow,
The dream that comes, the dream that goes,
The memories that follow."

The song was greeted with a vague stir among the silent audience. A
little breeze gave a deep satisfied sigh, among the trees.

Several other songs followed, and then the party broke up. They were to
amuse themselves as they pleased during the afternoon, and to meet on
the same spot for five o'clock tea.

"I _wish_ Hadria would not be so reckless!" cried Algitha anxiously.
"Have you seen her lately?"

"When last I saw her," said Valeria, "she had strolled off with the
Professor and Mr. Moreton. Mr. Fleming and Lord Engleton were following
with Mrs. Fenwick."

"There is safety in numbers, at any rate, but I am distressed about her.
It is all very well what she says, about not allowing her woman's sole
weapon to be wrenched from her, but she can't use it in this way,
safely. One can't play with human emotions without coming to grief."

"A man, at any rate, has no idea of being led an emotional dance," said
Miss Du Prel.

"Hadria has, I believe, at the bottom of her heart, a lurking desire to
hurt men, because they have hurt women so terribly," said Algitha.

"One can understand the impulse, but the worst of it is, that one is
certain to pay back the score on the good man, and let the other go
free."

Algitha shook her head, regretfully.

"Did Hadria never show this impulse before?"

"Never in my life have I seen her exercise her power so ruthlessly."

"I rather think she is wise after all," said Miss Du Prel reflectively.
"She might be sorry some day never to have tasted what she is tasting
now."

"But it seems to me dreadful. There is not a man who is not influenced
by her in the strangest manner; even poor Joseph Fleming, who used to
look up to her so. In my opinion, she is acting very wrongly."

"'He that has eaten his fill does not pity the hungry,' as the Eastern
proverb puts it. Come now, Algitha, imagine yourself to be cut off from
the work that