th trusting eyes which did not question anything;
and she saw that to turn back now would be like a physical fracture
somehow, like breaking her leg, and that the moment she had said she
would, she would have to cry again, and afterwards she would be quite
sick. And then she looked at Hugo, who was so manly and sure, who _must_
be right, no matter how she felt now: and so began to nerve herself
to speak....

But Canning had a new thought, a new argument, which now became
definite. Coming to a halt in front of her, he said in a businesslike
sort of way:

"Let's see now. You want to send word to Dr. Vivian this afternoon that
he is to tell Colonel Dalhousie that you feel you did his son an
injustice. Is that it?"

Checked in her drift toward yielding, Carlisle said that was what she
had thought.

"Well, let's imagine what would happen then. I said just now that for
you to do this would accomplish nothing, but it would of course raise a
cloud of doubt, of which the Colonel would probably make the very most.
He would not be so scrupulous about giving you the benefit of the doubt
as you feel, at the moment, about giving it to his son. He could make a
most unpleasant story of it."

Carlisle sat with lowered eyes, listening to the firm just tones. Very
lovely and desirable she looked in a "little" white dress which Hugo had
praised once....

"And malice would seize on this story and make it worse and worse the
further it travelled. If you stop to think a moment, you will easily see
what a sensation the scandalmongers can make out of the materials you
ingenuously wish to offer them."

He himself stopped to think; his keen mind flung out little exploring
parties over the prospect he hinted at, and they raced back shrieking
with vulgar horrors. Surely, surely his chosen bride could never have
contemplated this.

"Carlisle, have you reflected that you would be pointed at, whispered
about, till the longest day you live?"

She sat motionless, with averted face, and felt that she was slipping
from her last mooring. Was it conceivable that Hugo was persuading her
to hush it all up again--just because it was _easier?_... She and mamma
had done that and thought nothing of it. But, for this moment, at least,
it seemed horribly different to have such a thought about Hugo....

She said in a little voice: "But if it's right, I oughtn't to think
about consequences, ought I?"

Canning groaned.

"How many times must I tell you