garden and the leaves driving across brought a
melancholy distraction. Little Gyp came in and prattled. There was
a tree blown down, and she had climbed on it; they had picked up two
baskets of acorns, and the pigs had been so greedy; and she had been
blown away, so that Betty had had to run after her. And Baryn was
walking in the study; he was so busy he had only given her one kiss.

When she was gone, Gyp opened the window and let the wind full into her
face. If only it would blow out of her heart this sickening sense that
all was over, no matter how he might pretend to love her out of pity! In
a nature like hers, so doubting and self-distrustful, confidence, once
shaken to the roots, could never be restored. A proud nature that went
all lengths in love could never be content with a half-love. She
had been born too doubting, proud, and jealous, yet made to love too
utterly. She--who had been afraid of love, and when it came had fought
till it swept her away; who, since then, had lived for love and nothing
else, who gave all, and wanted all--knew for certain and for ever that
she could not have all.

It was "nothing" he had said! Nothing! That for months he had been
thinking at least a little of another woman besides herself. She
believed what he had told her, that there had been no more than
a kiss--but was it nothing that they had reached that kiss? This
girl--this cousin--who held all the cards, had everything on her
side--the world, family influence, security of life; yes, and more, so
terribly much more--a man's longing for the young and unawakened. This
girl he could marry! It was this thought which haunted her. A mere
momentary outbreak of man's natural wildness she could forgive and
forget--oh, yes! It was the feeling that it was a girl, his own cousin,
besieging him, dragging him away, that was so dreadful. Ah, how horrible
it was--how horrible! How, in decent pride, keep him from her, fetter
him?

She heard him come up to his dressing-room, and while he was still
there, stole out and down. Life must go on, the servants be hoodwinked,
and so forth. She went to the piano and played, turning the dagger in
her heart, or hoping forlornly that music might work some miracle. He
came in presently and stood by the fire, silent.

Dinner, with the talk needful to blinding the household--for what is
more revolting than giving away the sufferings of the heart?--was almost
unendurable and directly it was over, they wen