"I hope--" And
there he stopped.

"Mr. Fair," the girl began, was still, and then--"O Mr. Fair, I know
what to say, but I don't know how to say it! I admit everything. All the
good reasons are on your side. And yet if I am to answer you now--" She
ceased. Her voice had not faltered, but her head drooped and he saw one
tear follow quickly after another and fall upon her hands.

"Why, you need not answer now," he tenderly said. "I told you I would
wait."

"O Mr. Fair, no, no! You have every right to be answered now, and I have
no right to delay beyond your wish. Only, I believe also that, matters
standing as they do, you have a perfect right to wait for a later answer
from me if you choose. I can only beg you will not. O you who are so
rational and brave and strong with yourself, you who know so well that a
man's whole fate cannot be wrapped up in one girl unless he weakly
chooses it so, take your answer now! I don't believe I can ever look
upon you--your offer--differently. Mr. Fair, there's one thing it lacks
which I think even you overlook."

"What is that?"

"It--I--I don't know any one word to describe it, unless it is
turn-out-well-a-bil-i-ty."

Fair started with astonishment, and the tears leaped again to her eyes
as she laughed, and with new distress said: "It isn't--it--O Mr. Fair,
don't you know what I mean? It doesn't make good poetry! As you would
say, it's not good art. You may think me 'fresh,' as the girls say, and
fantastical, but I can't help believing that in a matter like this
there's something wrong--some essential wanting--in whatever's not
good--good----"

"Romance?" asked Fair; "do you think the fact that a thing is good
romance----"

"No! O no, no, no! I don't say being good romance is enough to commend
it; but I do think not being good romance is enough to condemn it! Is
that so very foolish?"

The lover answered wistfully. "No. No." Then very softly: "Barbara "--he
waited till she looked up--"if this thing should ever seem to you to
have become good poetry, might not your answer be different?"

Barbara hesitated. "I--you--O--I only know how it seems now!"

"Never mind," said Fair, very gently. They rose and he took her hand,
speaking again in the same tone. "You really believe I have the right to
wait for a later answer?"

Her head drooped. "The right?" she murmured, "yes--the right----"

"So also do I. I shall wait. Good-by."

She raised her glance, her voice failed to a whisp