n of your life. You have a great chance; you are going
to throw it away. I am sorry, because you are not, I think, at all
that sort of girl." He paused a moment. "Well, there is no more to be
said. I am sorry as much for your sake as my own. Good-bye."

He moved to the door. The disappointment was almost more than he could
bear. He did not know how strong his hopes had been; and now he must
return with things as they were before, with the added knowledge that
his son had behaved like a cad, and that the world would soon know.

"Good-bye," he said again and turned round towards her.

She rose from her chair and tried to smile. She said something that he
could not catch, and then, suddenly, to his intense astonishment, she
flung herself back into her chair again, hid her face in her hands, and
burst into uncontrollable tears. He stood irresolute, and then came
back and waited by the fireplace. He thought it was the most desolate
thing that he had ever known--the flapping of the blind against the
window, the dry rustling of the leaves on the mantel-piece, only
accentuated the sound of her sobbing. He let her cry and then, at
last--"I am a brute," he said. "I am sorry--I will go away."

"No." She sat up and began to dry her eyes with her handkerchief.
"Don't go--it was absurd of me to give way like that; I thought that I
had got over all that, but one is so silly--one never can tell----"

He sat down again and waited.

"You see," she went on, "I had liked you, always, from the first moment
that I saw you. You were different from the others--quite
different--and after Robin had behaved--as he did--I distrusted every
one. I thought they were all like that, except you. You do not know
what people have done to us here. We have had no friends; they have
all despised us, especially your family. And Robin said--well, lots of
things that hurt. That I was not good enough and that his aunt would
not like me. And then, of course, when I saw that, if I kept the
letters, I could make them all unhappy--why, of course, I kept them.
It was natural, wasn't it? But I didn't want to hurt you--I felt that
all the time; and when I saw you here when I came in, I was afraid,
because I hardly knew what to do. I thought I would show you that I
wasn't weak and foolish as you thought me--the kind of girl that Robin
could throw over so easily without thinking twice about it--and so I
meant to hold out. There--and now, of c