He is only gone for a few hours, nor is he likely to go for
longer just yet. He keeps himself a good deal in my company, which has
made it unsafe for me to venture near you.'

'Has he any suspicion?'

'None, apparently. But he rather depresses me.'

'How, Viviette?' Swithin feared, from her manner, that this was
something serious.

'I would rather not tell.'

'But--Well, never mind.'

'Yes, Swithin, I will tell you. There should be no secrets between us.
He urges upon me the necessity of marrying, day after day.'

'For money and position, of course.'

'Yes. But I take no notice. I let him go on.'

'Really, this is sad!' said the young man. 'I must work harder than
ever, or you will never be able to own me.'

'O yes, in good time!' she cheeringly replied.

'I shall be very glad to have you always near me. I felt the gloom of
our position keenly when I was obliged to disappear that night, without
assuring you it was only I who stood there. Why were you so frightened
at those old clothes I borrowed?'

'Don't ask,--don't ask!' she said, burying her face on his shoulder. 'I
don't want to speak of that. There was something so ghastly and so
uncanny in your putting on such garments that I wish you had been more
thoughtful, and had left them alone.'

He assured her that he did not stop to consider whose they were. 'By the
way, they must be sent back,' he said.

'No; I never wish to see them again! I cannot help feeling that your
putting them on was ominous.'

'Nothing is ominous in serene philosophy,' he said, kissing her. 'Things
are either causes, or they are not causes. When can you see me again?'

In such wise the hour passed away. The evening was typical of others
which followed it at irregular intervals through the winter. And during
the intenser months of the season frequent falls of snow lengthened, even
more than other difficulties had done, the periods of isolation between
the pair. Swithin adhered with all the more strictness to the letter of
his promise not to intrude into the house, from his sense of her
powerlessness to compel him to keep out should he choose to rebel. A
student of the greatest forces in nature, he had, like many others of his
sort, no personal force to speak of in a social point of view, mainly
because he took no interest in human ranks and formulas; and hence he was
as docile as a child in her hands wherever matters of that kind were
concerned.

Her broth