f a shock, but I was sure you
would see the matter in my light."

"It is not wanting in power! But it seems that I am. I have never
aspired to the role of Amelia Sedley. I have, in fact, rather a
pronounced individuality; and yet you have taken upon yourself to
dispose of my future as if I were a slip of eighteen--delighted at the
prospect of a husband."

"Indeed you are wrong!" he cried, distressed to have bruised so beloved
an ego. "But, I repeat, it was a question I was forced to decide alone.
Nor would it have been fair to ask you to assume any part of so great a
responsibility. Do you suppose I did not think of that? Do you suppose I
have ever lost sight of your happiness? Let me think for both and you
shall not regret it."

She could have smiled outright at this evidence of the ingenuousness of
man, but her breast was raging with a fury of disappointment and
consternation. She kept her eyes down lest they should betray her. But
suddenly she had an inspiration. She controlled herself with a masterly
effort, flooded her eyes with tenderness, raised them, and said,
softly:

"I do love London, love it with what I called a passion before I--before
we met. And I cannot believe that this extraordinary resolution of yours
has had time to mature. Promise me at least that you will not apply for
letters of citizenship for at least a year after your arrival--"

"I shall apply the day after I arrive in Rosewater." He steeled himself,
for he had had his experience of woman's wiles; and his faith in
masculine supremacy as a habit did not waver. "I only regret that the
time of probation must be so long. I am on fire to throw myself into the
arena--however, there will be opportunities to make myself known and
felt. I have decided to study law meanwhile--and the law, it seems, is a
career in itself in America."

And then he watched her eyes, fascinated. They slowly hardened, until,
with the sun slanting into them, they looked like bronze. She was too
intent upon studying his own to hide them, and upon arriving at a final
conclusion. She reached it in a moment, for to her habit of rapid
thought and her understanding of the workings of the masculine mind she
owed no little of her supremacy among the clever women of London.

"I see that your decision is irrevocable," she said. "You are yourself;
no one could make or unmake you, and God forbid that I should try.
But--and I forbear to lead up to it artistically--I dissever mysel