w that he was farther removed than ever
from the object on which his whole mind was set. Had Hetta Carbury
learned all the circumstances of Paul's engagement with Mrs Hurtle
before she had confessed her love to Paul,--so that her heart might
have been turned against the man before she had made her confession,--
then, he thought, she might at last have listened to him. Even though
she had loved the other man, she might have at last done so, as her
love would have been buried in her own bosom. But the tale had been
told after the fashion which was most antagonistic to his own
interests. Hetta had never heard Mrs Hurtle's name till she had given
herself away, and had declared to all her friends that she had given
herself away to this man, who was so unworthy of her. The more Roger
thought of this, the more angry he was with Paul Montague, and the more
convinced that that man had done him an injury which he could never
forgive.

But his grief extended even beyond that. Though he was never tired of
swearing to himself that he would not forgive Paul Montague, yet there
was present to him a feeling that an injury was being done to the man,
and that he was in some sort responsible for that injury. He had
declined to tell Hetta any part of the story about Mrs Hurtle,--actuated
by a feeling that he ought not to betray the trust put in him by a man
who was at the time his friend; and he had told nothing. But no one
knew so well as he did the fact that all the attention latterly given
by Paul to the American woman had by no means been the effect of love,
but had come from a feeling on Paul's part that he could not desert
the woman he had once loved, when she asked him for his kindness. If
Hetta could know everything exactly,--if she could look back and read
the state of Paul's mind as he, Roger, could read it,--then she would
probably forgive the man, or perhaps tell herself that there was
nothing for her to forgive. Roger was anxious that Hetta's anger
should burn hot,--because of the injury done to himself. He thought that
there were ample reasons why Paul Montague should be punished,--why Paul
should be utterly expelled from among them, and allowed to go his own
course. But it was not right that the man should be punished on false
grounds. It seemed to Roger now that he was doing an injustice to his
enemy by refraining from telling all that he knew.

As to the girl's misery in losing her lover, much as he loved her,
true as it