e
till you have settled that? Till then you do not know what is going to
happen to you. When you get up in the morning you know not what may come
before the night; when you walk out you know not who may be the next
person you meet; perhaps your husband. But then you marry, and that is
all settled; henceforward nothing can happen!" said Bice, throwing out
her hands. "Then, after all is settled, you can begin to live."

"This is very interesting," said Derwentwater, "I am so glad to get at a
real and individual view. But this, perhaps, only applies to--ladies? It
is, perhaps, not the same with men?"

Bice gave him a careless, half-contemptuous glance. "I have never known
anything," she said, "about men."

There are many girls, much more innocent in outward matters than Bice,
who would have said these words with an intention _agacante_--the
intention of leading to a great deal more badinage. But Bice spoke with
a calm, almost scornful, composure. She had no desire to _agacer_. She
looked him in the face as tranquilly as if he had been an old woman. And
so far as she was concerned he might have been an old woman; for he had
virtually no existence in his capacity of young man. Had she possessed
any clue to the thoughts that had taken rise in his mind, the new
revelation which she had conveyed to him, Bice's amazement would have
been without bounds. But instinct indicated to her that the interview
should proceed no further. She waved her hand to him as she came to a
cross road which led into the woods. "I am going this way," she cried,
darting off round the corner of a great tree. He stood and looked after
her bewildered, as her light figure skimmed along into the depths of the
shadows. "Then, after all is settled, you can begin to live," he
repeated to himself. Was it true? He had got up the morning on which he
saw her first without any thought that everything might be changed for
him that day. And now it was quite true that there lay before him an
interval which must be somehow filled up before he could begin to live.
How was it to be filled up? Would _she_ have anything to do with the
settling which must precede his recommencement of existence? He went on
with his mind altogether absorbed in these thoughts, and with a thrill
and tingling through all his veins. And that was the only time he
encountered Bice, for whom in fact, though he had not hitherto allowed
it even to himself, he had come to the Hall--till the great ni