'yes, I must.'

'That has been long enough, my queen! I cannot let you do it any
longer. You may give me lessons; nobody else.'

'But!'--said Esther, catching her breath; then, not willing to open the
whole chapter of discussion she saw ahead, she caught at the nearest
and smallest item. 'You know, I am under obligations; and I must meet
them until other arrangements are made. I am expected, I am depended
on; I must not fail. I must give this lesson Monday, and others.'

'Then I will do this part of the work,' said he, taking the pencil from
her fingers. 'Give me your place, please.'

Esther gave him her chair and took his. And then she sat down and
watched the drawing. Now and then her eyes made a swift passage to his
face for a half second, to explore the features so well known and yet
so new; but those were a kind of fearful glances, which dreaded to be
caught, and for the most part her eyes were down on the drawing and on
the hands busied with it. Hands, we know, tell of character; and
Esther's eyes rested with secret pleasure on the shapely fingers, which
in their manly strength and skilful agility corresponded so well to
what she knew of their possessor. The fingers worked on, for a time,
silently.

'Pitt, this is oddly like old times!' said Esther at last.

'Things have got into their right grooves again,' said he contentedly.

'But what are you doing? That is beautiful!--but you are making it a
great deal too elaborate and difficult for my scholar. She is not far
enough advanced for that.'

'I'll take another piece of paper, then, and begin again. What do you
want?'

'Just a tree, lightly sketched, and a bit of rock under it; something
like that. She is a beginner.'

'A tree and a rock?' said Pitt. 'Well, here you shall have it. But,
Queen Esther, this sort of thing cannot go on, you know?'

'For a while it must.'

'For a very little while! In fact, I do not see how it can go on at
all. I will go and see your school madam and tell her you have made
another engagement.'

'But every honest person fulfils the obligations he is under, before
assuming new ones.'

'That's past praying for!' said Pitt, with a shake of his head. 'You
have assumed the new ones. Now the next thing is to get rid of the old.
I must go back to my work soon; and, Queen Esther, your majesty will
not refuse to go with me?'

He turned and stretched out his hand to her as he spoke. In the action,
in the intonation of the last