dreaded was indifference.
So long as a woman is piqued with you, something can always be done; it is
only when she becomes careless and unmindful of what you do, or say, or
look, or think, that the game looks hopeless. Therefore it was that he
regarded this demonstration of anger as rather favourable than otherwise.

'Atlee has told her of the Greek! Atlee has stirred up her jealousy of the
Titian Girl. Atlee has drawn a long indictment against me, and the fellow
has done me good service in giving me something to plead to. Let me have
a charge to meet, and I have no misgivings. What really unmans me is the
distrust that will not even utter an allegation, and the indifference that
does not want disproof.'

He learned that her ladyship was in the garden, and he hastened down to
meet her. In his own small way Walpole was a clever tactician; and he
counted much on the ardour with which he should open his case, and the
amount of impetuosity that would give her very little time for reflection.

'I shall at once assume that her fate is irrevocably knitted to my own, and
I shall act as though the tie was indissoluble. After all, if she puts me
to the proof, I have her letters--cold and guarded enough, it is true. No
fervour, no gush of any kind, but calm dissertations on a future that must
come, and a certain dignified acceptance of her own part in it. Not the
kind of letters that a Q.C. could read with much rapture before a crowded
court, and ask the assembled grocers, "What happiness has life to offer to
the man robbed of those precious pledges of affection--how was he to
face the world, stripped of every attribute that cherished hope and fed
ambition?"'

He was walking slowly towards her when he first saw her, and he had some
seconds to prepare himself ere they met.

'I came down after you, Maude,' said he, in a voice ingeniously modulated
between the tone of old intimacy and a slight suspicion of emotion. 'I came
down to tell you my news'--he waited, and then added--'my fate!'

Still she was silent, the changed word exciting no more interest than its
predecessor.

'Feeling as I do,' he went on, 'and how we stand towards each other, I
cannot but know that my destiny has nothing good or evil in it, except as
it contributes to your happiness.' He stole a glance at her, but there was
nothing in that cold, calm face that could guide him. With a bold effort,
however, he went on: 'My own fortune in life has but one test--is