then he rose to go. "Are you angry with me?"
said she in a softer tone.

"I ought to ask that question," said he. "Can you forgive me? I am
afraid not. No man can say to a woman what I have said to you, and be
quite forgiven. You will never think of me again as you would have done
if I had not spoken. I knew that before I did it. As for me, I can only
go on with my old life. It is not gay, and will not be the gayer for our
talk to-night."

Madeleine relented a little: "Friendships like ours are not so easily
broken," she said. "Do not do me another injustice. You will see me
again before you go?"

He assented and bade good-night. Mrs. Lee, weary and disturbed in mind,
hastened to her room. "When Miss Sybil comes in, tell her that I am not
very well, and have gone to bed," were her instructions to her maid, and
Sybil thought she knew the cause of this headache.

But before Carrington's departure he had one more ride with Sybil,
and reported to her the result of the interview, at which both of them
confessed themselves much depressed. Carrington expressed some hope that
Madeleine meant, after a sort, to give a kind of pledge by saying that
she had no intention of marrying Mr. Ratcliffe, but Sybil shook her head
emphatically:

"How can a woman tell whether she is going to accept a man until she is
asked?" said she with entire confidence, as though she were stating the
simplest fact in the world. Carrington looked puzzled, and ventured to
ask whether women did not generally make up their minds beforehand on
such an interesting point; but Sybil overwhelmed him with contempt:
"What good will they do by making up their minds, I should like to
know? of course they would go and do the opposite. Sensible women don't
pretend to make up their minds, Mr. Carrington. But you men are so
stupid, and you can't understand in the least."

Carrington gave it up, and went back to his stale question: Could Sybil
suggest any other resource? and Sybil sadly confessed that she could
not. So far as she could see, they must trust to luck, and she thought
it was cruel tor Mr. Carrington to go away and leave her alone without
help. He had promised to prevent the marriage.

"One thing more I mean to do," said Carrington: "and here everything
will depend on your courage and nerve. You may depend upon it that Mr.
Ratcliffe will offer himself before you go north. He does not suspect
you of making trouble, and he will not think about you in any