n purpose for you. She is a very old friend,--very
old,--and you ought not to treat her unkindly. Good bye, Mr Montague.
I think you had better lose no time in going--back to Mrs Hurtle.' All
this she said with sundry little impedimentary gurgles in her throat,
but without a tear and without any sign of tenderness.

'You don't mean to tell me, Hetta, that you are going to quarrel with
me!'

'I don't know about quarrelling. I don't wish to quarrel with any one.
But of course we can't be friends when you have married Mrs Hurtle.'

'Nothing on earth would induce me to marry her.'

'Of course I cannot say anything about that. When they told me this
story I did not believe them. No; I hardly believed Roger when,--he
would not tell it for he was too kind,--but when he would not contradict
it. It seemed to be almost impossible that you should have come to me
just at the very same moment. For, after all, Mr Montague, nearly
three weeks is a very short time. That trip to Lowestoft couldn't
have been much above a week before you came to me.'

'What does it matter?'

'Oh no; of course not;--nothing to you. I think I will go away now, Mr
Montague. It was very good of you to come and tell me all. It makes it
so much easier.'

'Do you mean to say that--you are going to--throw me over?'

'I don't want you to throw Mrs Hurtle over. Good bye.'

'Hetta!'

'No; I will not have you lay your hand upon me. Good night, Mr
Montague.' And so she left him.

Paul Montague was beside himself with dismay as he left the house. He
had never allowed himself for a moment to believe that this affair of
Mrs Hurtle would really separate him from Hetta Carbury. If she could
only really know it all, there could be no such result. He had been
true to her from the first moment in which he had seen her, never
swerving from his love. It was to be supposed that he had loved some
woman before; but, as the world goes, that would not, could not,
affect her. But her anger was founded on the presence of Mrs Hurtle in
London,--which he would have given half his possessions to have
prevented. But when she did come, was he to have refused to see her?
Would Hetta have wished him to be cold and cruel like that? No doubt
he had behaved badly to Mrs Hurtle;--but that trouble he had overcome.
And now Hetta was quarrelling with him, though he certainly had never
behaved badly to her.

He was almost angry with Hetta as he walked home. Everything that he
could d