bilities of late that I've fallen into the habit of letting
other interests go in a measure."

It was harder even than she had imagined it would be--harder because she
realized now that they did not speak the same language. She felt that
she had struck against something as dry and cold and impersonal as an
abstract principle. A ludicrous premonition assailed her that in a
little while he would begin to talk about his public duty. This lack of
genuine emotion, which had at first appeared to contradict his
sentimental point of view, was revealed to her suddenly as its supreme
justification. Because he felt nothing deeply he could afford to play
brilliantly with the names of emotions; because he had never suffered
his duty would always lie, as Gideon Vetch had once said of him, "in the
direction of things he could not hurt."

"It is a pity," she said gently, "for she still cares for you."

The hand that held his cigar trembled. She had penetrated his reserve at
last, and she saw a shadow which was not the shadow of the wind-blown
flowers, cross his features.

"Did she tell you that?" he asked as gently as she had spoken.

"There was no need to tell me. I saw it as soon as I looked at her."

For a moment he was silent; then he said very quietly, as one whose
controlling motive was a hatred of excess, of unnecessary fussiness or
frankness: "I am sorry."

"Have you stopped caring for her?"

The shadow on his face changed into a look of perplexity. When he spoke,
she realized that he had mistaken her meaning; and for an instant her
heart beat wildly with resentment or apprehension.

"I am fond of her. I shall always be fond of her," he said. "Does it
make any difference to you, my dear?"

Yes, he had mistaken her meaning. He was judging her in the dim light of
an immemorial tradition; and he had seen in her anxious probing for
truth merely a personal jealousy. Women were like that, he would have
said, applying, in accordance with his mental custom, the general law to
the particular instance. After all, where could they meet? They were as
far divided in their outlook on life as if they had inhabited different
spiritual hemispheres. A curiosity seized her to know what was in his
mind, to sound the depths of that unfathomable reserve.

"That is over so completely that I thought it would make no difference
to you," he added almost reproachfully, as if she, not he, were to be
blamed for dragging a disagreeable subject i