e in our keeping, are not
inferior to our great trust, that we are not mere creatures of a state
department, small deities of the Olympus of office, but actual statesmen
and rulers. Fortune has given me the wished-for moment, let it complete
my happiness, let it tell me that you see in this noble work one worthy
of your genius and your generosity, and that you would accept me as a
fellow-labourer in the cause.'

The fervour which he threw into the utterance of these words contrasted
strongly and strangely with the words themselves; so unlike the declaration
of a lover's passion.

'I do--not--know,' said she falteringly.

'What is that you do not know?' asked he, with tender eagerness.

'I do not know if I understand you aright, and I do not know what answer I
should give you.'

'Will not your heart tell you?'

She shook her head.

'You will not crush me with the thought that there is no pleading for me
there.'

'If you had desired in honesty my regard, you should not have prejudiced
me: you began here by enlisting my sympathies in your Task; you told me of
your ambitions. I like these ambitions.'

'Why not share them?' cried he passionately.

'You seem to forget what you ask. A woman does not give her heart as a
man joins a party or an administration. It is no question of an advantage
based upon a compromise. There is no sentiment of gratitude, or recompense,
or reward in the gift. She simply gives that which is no longer hers to
retain! She trusts to what her mind will not stop to question--she goes
where she cannot help but follow.'

'How immeasurably greater your every word makes the prize of your love.'

'It is in no vanity that I say I know it,' said she calmly. 'Let us speak
no more on this now.'

'But you will not refuse to listen to me, Nina?'

'I will read you if you write to me,' and with a wave of good-bye she
slowly left the room.

'She is my master, even at my own game,' said Walpole, as he sat down, and
rested his head between his hands. 'Still she is mistaken: I can write just
as vaguely as I can speak, and if I could not, it would have cost me my
freedom this many a day. With such a woman one might venture high, but
Heaven help him when he ceased to climb the mountain!'

CHAPTER XLIX

A CUP OP TEA

It was so rare an event of late for Nina to seek her cousin in her own
room, that Kate was somewhat surprised to see Nina enter with all her old
ease of manner, and flinging awa