and I was told 'no,' but I think very
likely that generosity dictated that answer. And the fear stays. I am
much distressed by it. I lie awake with it at night. And then you come
whom I greatly value, and you say quietly, 'Will you please spoil my
career too?'" And she struck one hand sharply into the other and cried,
"But that I will not do."

And again he answered:--

"There is no need that you should. Wadi Halfa is not the only place
where a soldier can find work to his hand."

His voice had taken a new hopefulness. For he had listened intently to
the words which she had spoken, and he had construed them by the
dictionary of his desires. She had not said that friendship bounded all
her thoughts of him. Therefore he need not believe it. Women were given
to a hinting modesty of speech, at all events the best of them. A man
might read a little more emphasis into their tones, and underline their
words and still be short of their meaning, as he argued. A subtle
delicacy graced them in nature. Durrance was near to Benedick's mood.
"One whom I value"; "I shall miss you"; there might be a double meaning
in the phrases. When she said that she needed to be assured that she had
sure friends, did she not mean that she needed their companionship? But
the argument, had he been acute enough to see it, proved how deep he was
sunk in error. For what this girl spoke, she habitually meant, and she
habitually meant no more. Moreover, upon this occasion she had
particularly weighed her words.

"No doubt," she said, "_a_ soldier can. But can this soldier find work
so suitable? Listen, please, till I have done. I was so very glad to
hear all that you have told me about your work and your journeys. I was
still more glad because of the satisfaction with which you told it. For
it seemed to me, as I listened and as I watched, that you had found the
one true straight channel along which your life could run swift and
smoothly and unharassed. And so few do that--so very few!" And she wrung
her hands and cried, "And now you spoil it all."

Durrance suddenly faced her. He ceased from argument; he cried in a
voice of passion:--

"I am for you, Ethne! There's the true straight channel, and upon my
word I believe you are for me. I thought--I admit it--at one time I
would spend my life out there in the East, and the thought contented me.
But I had schooled myself into contentment, for I believed you married."
Ethne ever so slightly flinched, an