s she had truly said it was
an agony he would soon forget. But to be told by a woman of her love,--
without being able even to promise love in return,--to be so told while
you are in the very act of acknowledging your love for another woman,--
carries with it but little of the joy of triumph. He did not want to
see her raging like a tigress, as he had once thought might be his
fate; but he would have preferred the continuance of moderate
resentment to this flood of tenderness. Of course he stood with his
arm round her waist, and of course he returned her caresses; but he
did it with such stiff constraint that she at once felt how chill they
were. 'There,' she said, smiling through her bitter tears,--'there; you
are released now, and not even my fingers shall ever be laid upon you
again. If I have annoyed you, at this our last meeting, you must
forgive me.'

'No;--but you cut me to the heart.'

'That we can hardly help;--can we? When two persons have made fools of
themselves as we have, there must I suppose be some punishment. Yours
will never be heavy after I am gone. I do not start till the first of
next month because that is the day fixed by our friend, Mr Fisker, and
I shall remain here till then because my presence is convenient to Mrs
Pipkin; but I need not trouble you to come to me again. Indeed it will
be better that you should not. Good-bye.'

He took her by the hand, and stood for a moment looking at her, while
she smiled and gently nodded her head at him. Then he essayed to pull
her towards him as though he would again kiss her. But she repulsed
him, still smiling the while. 'No, sir; no; not again; never again,
never,--never,--never again.' By that time she had recovered her hand
and stood apart from him. 'Good-bye, Paul;--and now go.' Then he turned
round and left the room without uttering a word.

She stood still, without moving a limb, as she listened to his step
down the stairs and to the opening and the closing of the door. Then
hiding herself at the window with the scanty drapery of the curtain
she watched him as he went along the street. When he had turned the
corner she came back to the centre of the room, stood for a moment
with her arms stretched out towards the walls, and then fell prone
upon the floor. She had spoken the very truth when she said that she
had loved him with all her heart.

But that evening she bade Mrs Pipkin drink tea with her and was more
gracious to the poor woman than eve