lf?'

'A negative reply from you would be disappointment, early or late.'

'And you prefer having it late to accepting it now? If I were a man, I
should like to abandon a false scent as soon as possible.'

'I suppose all that has but one meaning: that I am to go.'

'O no,' she magnanimously assured him, bounding up from her seat; 'I
adhere to my statement that you may stay; though it is true something
may possibly happen to make me alter my mind.'

He again offered his arm, and from sheer necessity she leant upon it as
before.

'Grant me but a moment's patience,' he began.

'Captain De Stancy! Is this fair? I am physically obliged to hold your
arm, so that I MUST listen to what you say!'

'No, it is not fair; 'pon my soul it is not!' said De Stancy. 'I won't
say another word.'

He did not; and they clambered on through the boughs, nothing disturbing
the solitude but the rustle of their own footsteps and the singing of
birds overhead. They occasionally got a peep at the sky; and whenever a
twig hung out in a position to strike Paula's face the gallant captain
bent it aside with his stick. But she did not thank him. Perhaps he was
just as well satisfied as if she had done so.

Paula, panting, broke the silence: 'Will you go on, and discover if the
top is near?'

He went on. This time the top was near. When he returned she was sitting
where he had left her among the leaves. 'It is quite near now,' he told
her tenderly, and she took his arm again without a word. Soon the path
changed its nature from a steep and rugged watercourse to a level green
promenade.

'Thank you, Captain De Stancy,' she said, letting go his arm as if
relieved.

Before them rose the tower, and at the base they beheld two of their
friends, Mr. Power being seen above, looking over the parapet through
his glass.

'You will go to the top now?' said De Stancy.

'No, I take no interest in it. My interest has turned to fatigue. I only
want to go home.'

He took her on to where the carriage stood at the foot of the tower,
and leaving her with his sister ascended the turret to the top. The
landscape had quite changed from its afternoon appearance, and had
become rather marvellous than beautiful. The air was charged with a
lurid exhalation that blurred the extensive view. He could see the
distant Rhine at its junction with the Neckar, shining like a thread
of blood through the mist which was gradually wrapping up the declining
sun. The sce