" he said. "Good-bye!"

And he turned away, as if to walk off alone.

"Where are you going?" asked Bernard, stopping him.

"I don't know--to the hotel, anywhere. To try to get used to what you
have told me."

"Don't try too hard; it will come of itself," said Bernard.

"We shall see!"

And Gordon turned away again.

"Do you prefer to go alone?"

"Very much--if you will excuse me!"

"I have asked you to excuse a greater want of ceremony!" said Bernard,
smiling.

"I have not done so yet!" Gordon rejoined; and marching off, he mingled
with the crowd.

Bernard watched him till he lost sight of him, and then, dropping into
the first empty chair that he saw, he sat and reflected that his friend
liked it quite as little as he had feared.

CHAPTER XXVI

Bernard sat thinking for a long time; at first with a good deal of
mortification--at last with a good deal of bitterness. He felt angry
at last; but he was not angry with himself. He was displeased with poor
Gordon, and with Gordon's displeasure. He was uncomfortable, and he was
vexed at his discomfort. It formed, it seemed to him, no natural part of
his situation; he had had no glimpse of it in the book of fate where he
registered on a fair blank page his betrothal to a charming girl. That
Gordon should be surprised, and even a little shocked and annoyed--this
was his right and his privilege; Bernard had been prepared for that, and
had determined to make the best of it. But it must not go too far; there
were limits to the morsel of humble pie that he was disposed to swallow.
Something in Gordon's air and figure, as he went off in a huff, looking
vicious and dangerous--yes, that was positively his look--left a
sinister impression on Bernard's mind, and, after a while, made him
glad to take refuge in being angry. One would like to know what Gordon
expected, par exemple! Did he expect Bernard to give up Angela simply
to save him a shock; or to back out of his engagement by way of an ideal
reparation? No, it was too absurd, and, if Gordon had a wife of his own,
why in the name of justice should not Bernard have one?

Being angry was a relief, but it was not exactly a solution, and
Bernard, at last, leaving his place, where for an hour or two he had
been absolutely unconscious of everything that went on around him,
wandered about for some time in deep restlessness and irritation. At
one moment he thought of going back to Gordon's hotel, to see him, to
ex