know me."

"I think otherwise. You are my one friend among eighty millions of
aliens, or ought to be. I shall continue to feel a superior sort of
acquaintance until you have taken me into your confidence."

There was a movement of the fog that he inferred was a shrug. "Very
well," she replied, without a break in her cool even voice. "I suppose I
shall enjoy talking about myself. It is not often I have had the
opportunity to indulge in a monologue in my family, and you certainly
are at my mercy. If you attempt to flee you will be mired like the boat,
and I could not pull you out."

He had never felt the least curiosity about the past history or the
inner life of a mortal before, and in normal circumstances Isabel's
would not have appealed to him. But her instrumentality in changing the
whole current of his life had alarmed his masculinity into a resolve to
demonstrate his superiority if it came to a contest of wills; given
birth to a subtle assumption of proprietorship, indifferent in material
things, but pressing towards the guarded chambers of the spirit. Isabel,
vaguely uneasy earlier in the day, began to appreciate the advance of an
outer and powerful force upon her precious freedom, and resented it. And
while she made up her mind that if it came to a silent contest of wills,
hers at least should not be conquered, she reflected that the deeper
intimacy, certain to ensue if she gave him her confidence, would insure
her a firmer and subtler hold upon his destinies.

X

"Of course I lived two lives before my father's death. My days were
sufficiently filled with him, to say nothing of making both ends meet;
for even after my uncle's death, I had only a small income until the day
of my complete liberty came. I slept soundly enough when I was not
following my father about the house with a candle, or about the hills
with a lantern. But such a life preyed upon my spirits. I imagined
myself both melancholy and bitter and grew unhealthily romantic. But
from the conditions of my life I had two escapes--in books and in
dreams. My father hated company more and more and I rarely left him for
a dance or one of those church festivities where all the young people of
my set were sure to meet. I knew that I was regarded as rather a tragic
figure, and this enhanced my morbid egoism. I wonder if I shall ever be
as really happy again!

"During the year following my father's death I lived out here alone, but
with my hands ti