" I acknowledged.

"And--and of course he told you----"

"Everything, I suppose."

She kept her eyes lowered, persistently, looking gravely and sadly at
the worn carpet.

"At--at first I couldn't understand," she began. "Frieda told me days
and days ago that he was engaged--she had seen it in a paper. Of course,
he never spoke to me about it. When--when he began to say those things,
I thought he was out of his senses and--and I was afraid. He was pale
and trembling all over, and then I realized that he was asking me to
marry him. Oh! David! For a moment a dreadful temptation came to me. My
baby was in my arms--and this meant that I should always have bread for
him--that he could be taken care of--that it wouldn't matter, then, if I
ever could sing again. I--I could buy health and happiness for him, and
strength. Oh! It came to me just like a flash, and then it went away
again, thank God! I couldn't listen to him. It meant that I should have
to give up the memories that are still living and abandon the struggle,
yes, the blessed struggle for my livelihood and Baby's, to go to him as
a loveless wife. No, it was impossible, David! And he was so unhappy, so
frightfully unhappy when I told him I could never marry him, and--and
then I ran away. And he had always been so kind to me, Dave, and so
considerate--not like you, of course, because nobody could be like you,
but he was always so nice and pleasant, and I never had the slightest
idea that--that he had--that he was in love with me. And--and is it
true, David, that he is engaged to another woman?"

"I am afraid so, Frances, and I think she is a very fine and good woman,
and--and I am sorry for her. He can never have really loved her, of
course, but you know that Gordon was always a schemer, that he had
mapped out all his life like a man planning the building of a house. And
then, all of a sudden, he found out that nature was too strong for him,
that hearts and minds can't be shut within metes and bounds, and that
the real love in him was paramount. Oh! The pity of it all!"

I could see that she was also strongly affected and that it had been a
shock to her, a shrewd and painful blow, to hear my friend begging for a
love she could not give. He had been one of a few people lately come
into her life who had helped to mitigate its bitterness. Her soul, full
of gratitude, had revolted at having been compelled to inflict pain on
him, and yet she had been forced to do so an