nk.
Unfortunately, however, I happen to know to the contrary, so all my
cleverness comes to nothing."

The surprise had faded from her face, but the colour remained; and with
it something else--something in the blue eyes which he had never before
encountered there--the faintest trace of recoil, of shrinking away from
him.

And she herself did not know it was there--did not quite realise that
she had been hurt. Surprise that he had chanced so abruptly, so
unerringly upon the truth had startled and confused her; but that he had
made free of the truth so lightly, so carelessly, laughingly amused,
left her without an answering smile.

That it had been an accident--a chance surmise which perhaps he himself
did not credit--which he could not believe--made it no easier for her.
For the first time in his life he had said something which left her
unresponsive, with a sense of bruised delicacy and of privacy invaded. A
tinge of fear of him crept in, too. She did not misconstrue what he had
said under privilege of a jest, but after what had once passed between
them she had not considered that love, even in the abstract, might serve
as a mocking text for any humour or jesting sermon from a man who had
asked her what he once asked--the man she had loved enough to weep for
when she had refused him only because she lacked what he asked for.
Knowing that she loved him in her own innocent fashion, scarcely
credulous that he ever could be dearer to her, yet shyly wistful for
whatever more the years might add to her knowledge of a love so far
immune from stress or doubt or the mounting thrill of a deeper emotion,
she had remained confidently passive, warmly loyal, reverencing the
mystery of the love he offered, though she could not understand it or
respond.

And now--now a chance turn; of a word--a trend to an idle train of
thought, jestingly followed!--and, without warning, they had stumbled on
a treasured memory, too frail, too delicately fragile, to endure the
shock.

And now fear crept in--fear that he had forgotten, had changed. Else how
could he have spoken so? . . . And the tempered restraint of her
quivered at the thought--all the serenity, the confidence in life and in
him began to waver. And her first doubt crept in upon her.

She turned her expressionless face from him and, resting her cheek
against the velvet back of the chair, looked out into the late afternoon
sunshine.

All the long autumn without him, all her lon