ome again after all if
it were not that I cannot help coming? You have heard that I have
been,--been misbehaving myself?"

"I have not thought about that."

"It has been so because I have been so wretched. Ayala, you have made
me so unhappy. Ayala, you can make me the happiest man there is in
London this day. I seem to want nothing else. As for drink, or clubs,
or billiards, and all that, they are nothing to me,--unless when I
try to forget that you are so--so unkind to me!"

"It is not unkind, not to do as you ask me."

"To do as I ask you,--that would be kind. Oh, Ayala, cannot you be
kind to me?" She shook her head, still standing in the place which
she had occupied from the beginning. "May I come again? Will you give
me three months, and then think of it? If you would only say that, I
would go back to my work and never leave it." But she still shook her
head. "Must I never hope?"

"Not for that, Tom. How can I help it?"

"Not help it."

"No. How can I help it? One does not fall in love by trying,--nor by
trying prevent it."

"By degrees you might love me,--a little." She had said all that
she knew how to say, and again shook her head. "It is that accursed
Colonel," he exclaimed, forgetting himself as he thought of his
rival.

"He is not accursed," said Ayala, angrily.

"Then you love him?"

"No! But you should not ask. You have no right to ask. It is not
proper."

"You are not engaged to him?"

"No; I am not engaged to him. I do not love him. As you will ask,
I tell you. But you should not ask; and he is not accursed. He is
better than you,--though I do not love him. You should not have
driven me to say this. I do not ask you questions."

"There is none that I would not answer. Stay, Ayala," for now she was
going to leave the room. "Stay yet a moment. Do you know that you
are tearing my heart in pieces? Why is it that you should make me so
wretched? Dear Ayala;--dearest Ayala;--stay yet a moment."

"Tom, there is nothing more that I can say. I am very, very sorry if
you are unhappy. I do think that you are good and true; and if you
will shake hands with me, there is my hand. But I cannot say what
you want me to say." Tom took her by the hand and tried to hold her,
without, however, speaking to her again. But she slid away from him
and left the room, not having for a moment sat down in his presence.

When the door was closed he stood awhile looking round him, trying
to resolve what he might do