ht and last,
as a rule, twelve or fifteen hours, and the garden all strewn with
leaves of every hue, from green spotted with yellow to deep copper.

Summerhay was afraid; he kept with her all the morning, making all sorts
of little things to do in her company. But he gradually lost his fear,
she seemed so calm now, and his was a nature that bore trouble badly,
ever impatient to shake it off. And then, after lunch, the spirit-storm
beat up again, with a swiftness that showed once more how deceptive were
those lulls, how fearfully deep and lasting the wound. He had simply
asked her whether he should try to match something for her when he went
up, to-morrow. She was silent a moment, then answered:

"Oh, no, thanks; you'll have other things to do; people to see!"

The tone of her voice, the expression on her face showed him, with a
fresh force of revelation, what paralysis had fallen on his life. If
he could not reconvince her of his love, he would be in perpetual
fear--that he might come back and find her gone, fear that she might
even do something terrible to herself. He looked at her with a sort of
horror, and, without a word, went out of the room. The feeling that he
must hit his head against something was on him once more, and once more
he sought to get rid of it by tramping up and down. Great God! Such a
little thing, such fearful consequences! All her balance, her sanity
almost, destroyed. Was what he had done so very dreadful? He could not
help Diana loving him!

In the night, Gyp had said: "You are cruel. Do you think there is any
man in the world that I wouldn't hate the sight of if I knew that to see
him gave you a moment's pain?" It was true--he felt it was true. But
one couldn't hate a girl simply because she loved you; at least he
couldn't--not even to save Gyp pain. That was not reasonable, not
possible. But did that difference between a man and a woman necessarily
mean that Gyp loved him so much more than he loved her? Could she not
see things in proportion? See that a man might want, did want, other
friendships, even passing moments of passion, and yet could love her
just the same? She thought him cruel, called him cruel--what for?
Because he had kissed a girl who had kissed him; because he liked
talking to her, and--yes, might even lose his head with her. But
cruel! He was not! Gyp would always be first with him. He must MAKE her
see--but how? Give up everything? Give up--Diana? (Truth is so funny--it