o life, knowing you no longer want her, that she is
only in the way. Perhaps you may be able to think of something to say or
do that will lessen her martyrdom. I can't."

They had paused where a group of trees threw a blot of shadow across the
moonlit road.

"You mean she was killing herself?" he asked.

"Quite cleverly. So as to avoid all danger of after discovery: that
might have hurt us," she answered.

They walked in silence, and coming to a road that led back into the town,
he turned down it. She had the feeling she was following him without his
knowing it. A cab was standing outside the gate of a house, having just
discharged its fare. He seemed to have suddenly recollected her.

"Do you mind?" he said. "We shall get there so much quicker."

"You go," she said. "I'll stroll on quietly."

"You're sure?" he said.

"I would rather," she answered.

It struck her that he was relieved. He gave the man the address,
speaking hurriedly, and jumped in.

She had gone on. She heard the closing of the door behind her, and the
next moment the cab passed her.

She did not see him again that night. They met in the morning at
breakfast. A curious strangeness to each other seemed to have grown up
between them, as if they had known one another long ago, and had half
forgotten. When they had finished she rose to leave; but he asked her to
stop, and, after the table had been cleared, he walked up and down the
room, while she sat sideways on the window seat from where she could
watch the little ships moving to and fro across the horizon, like painted
figures in a show.

"I had a long talk with Nan last night," he said. "And, trying to
explain it to her, I came a little nearer to understanding it myself. My
love for you would have been strong enough to ruin both of us. I see
that now. It would have dominated every other thought in me. It would
have swallowed up my dreams. It would have been blind, unscrupulous.
Married to you, I should have aimed only at success. It would not have
been your fault. You would not have known. About mere birth I should
never have troubled myself. I've met daughters of a hundred earls--more
or less: clever, jolly little women I could have chucked under the chin
and have been chummy with. Nature creates her own ranks, and puts her
ban upon misalliances. Every time I took you in my arms I should have
felt that you had stepped down from your proper order to mate yourself