ircumstances for which he was
blameless? Damnable arguments! False, cowardly logic, by which all male
jilts seek to excuse their own treachery to themselves and to others!

Thus during the second ten minutes of his walk, his line of conduct
became less plain to him, and as he entered Piccadilly he was racked
with doubts. But instead of settling them in his mind he unconsciously
allowed himself to dwell upon the words with which he would seek to
excuse his treachery to Florence. He thought how he would tell her--not
to her face with spoken words, for that he could not do--but with
written skill, that he was unworthy of her goodness, that his love for
her had fallen off through his own unworthiness, and had returned to one
who was in all respects less perfect than she, but who in old days, as
she well knew, had been his first love. Yes! he would say all this, and
Julia, let her anger be what it might, should know that he had said it.
As he planned this, there came to him a little comfort, for he thought
there was something grand in such a resolution. Yes; he would do that,
even though he should lose Julia also.

Miserable clap-trap! He knew in his heart that all his logic was false,
and his arguments baseless. Cease to love Florence Burton! He had not
ceased to love her, nor is the heart of any man made so like a
weathercock that it needs must turn itself hither and thither, as the
wind directs, and be altogether beyond the man's control. For Harry,
with all his faults, and in spite of his present falseness, was a man.
No man ceases to love without a cause. No man need cease to love without
a cause. A man may maintain his love, and nourish it, and keep it warm
by honest, manly effort, as he may his probity, his courage, or his
honor. It was not that he had ceased to love Florence; but that the
glare of the candle had been too bright for him and he had scorched his
wings. After all, as to that embrace of which he had thought so much,
and the memory of which was so sweet to him and so bitter--it had simply
been an accident. Thus, writing in his mind that letter to Florence
which he knew, if he were an honest man, he would never allow himself to
write, he reached Lady Ongar's door without having arranged for himself
any special line of conduct.

We must return for a moment to the fact that Hugh and Archie had
returned to town before Harry Clavering. How Archie had been engaged on
great doings, the reader, I hope, will reme