erver's lover and poor Briss's wife, and the
finer strength it gave the last-named as the representative of their
interest. I may add too that I had even taken time fairly not to decide
which of these two branches of my vision--that of the terms of their
intercourse, or that of their need of it--was likely to prove, in
delectable retrospect, the more exquisite. All this, I admit, was a good
deal to have come and gone while my privilege trembled, in its very
essence, in the scale. Mrs. Briss had but a back to turn, and everything
was over. She had, in strictness, already uttered what saved her honour,
and her revenge on impertinence might easily be her withdrawing with one
of her sweeps. I couldn't certainly in that case hurry after her without
spilling my cards. As my accumulations of lucidity, however, were now
such as to defy all leakage, I promptly recognised the facilities
involved in a superficial sacrifice; and with one more glance at the
beautiful fact that she knew the strength of Long's hand, I again went
steadily and straight. She was acting not only for herself, and since
she had another also to serve and, as I was sure, report to, I should
sufficiently hold her. I knew moreover that I held her as soon as I had
begun afresh. "I don't mean that anything alters the fact that you lose
gracefully. It _is_ awfully charming, your thus giving yourself up, and
yet, justified as I am by it, I can't help regretting a little the
excitement I found it this morning to pull a different way from you.
Shall I tell you," it suddenly came to me to put to her, "what, for
some reason, a man feels aware of?" And then as, guarded, still uneasy,
she would commit herself to no permission: "That pulling against you
also had its thrill. You defended your cause. Oh," I quickly added, "I
know--who should know better?--that it was bad. Only--what shall I
say?--_you_ weren't bad, and one had to fight. And then there was what
one was fighting for! Well, you're not bad now, either; so that you may
ask me, of course, what more I want." I tried to think a moment. "It
isn't that, thrown back on the comparative dullness of security, I
find--as people have been known to--my own cause less good: no, it isn't
that." After which I had my illumination. "I'll tell you what it is:
it's the come-down of ceasing to work with you!"

She looked as if she were quite excusable for not following me. "To
'work'?"

I immediately explained. "Even fighting was