with words, Brigit. In plain
language, I was a scoundrel, a beast, and now I am trying to behave--not
like a gentleman, but like a decent man. And why you won't let me, I
don't know."

He was suffering, she saw with a sigh of relief.

"Then you still love me?" she asked coolly.

"Yes. Does a man change in a week? You are a child. Now tell me what you
have come for--if you have any object other than your usual one of
seeing how much I can endure, and then--go. I am strong, and you cannot
make me change my mind, and I--I despise you for trying to make of
me--the--_thing_ I was at one time. But I am not made of stone, and you
hurt me--almost too much."

His voice was very even and low-pitched, but she shrank back in her
corner and hastened to answer.

"You wrong me. I have not come to tempt you. I have come--to tell you
that nothing in the world nor out of it can induce me to marry Theo."

"You will not----"

"No, I will not marry him."

Papillon, who had unearthed a long-cherished bone in a dark corner under
a Dutch cabinet, dragged his treasure across the floor and laid it at
his master's feet with a pleased growl.

"You will not marry Theo?"

"No."

She had risen, and the two faced each other defiantly, while the little
dog between them wagged his tail with joy.

"Why?" asked Joyselle sharply.

"Because--I cannot. I have dawdled and dallied, and refused to face
things long enough. Now I see that the worst crime I could commit
against him would be to marry him. I love you. Whether you love me or
not, I love you, and I always shall. And I ask you as a great favour to
tell Theo for me that I cannot marry him."

"But what are you going to do?"

His voice trembled and he spoke very slowly.

"I am--going away. I don't know where. To Italy, probably, with the
Lenskys. And I shall, I daresay, marry in the course of time."

"Whom are you going to marry?" he cried furiously, forgetting that she
had just said that she loved him, and mad with jealousy.

She laughed. "_Qui sait?_ I don't. Possibly Lord Pontefract--he has just
come back from the Andes--possibly someone whom--you do not know."

"Then," returned Joyselle very quietly, "I will kill him."

And she could have laughed aloud.

"You will tell Theo?" she asked, picking up her gloves.

"No, I will not. I cannot. And you shall not go. Or, yes--Brigit--you
shall go--with me. If you will not marry him, then there is nothing
between us. I have fought,