ng intensity. "'Always something to be
ashamed of, something to hide, something breeding a secret unconquerable
grudge!' That's handicapping marriage very heavily--even though my
husband were not son to Lord Fillingford! Do you know that it was only
with the bitterest fear that I agreed to marry Leonard himself? Should I
easily marry another man now?"

"Don't ask her to marry you--it only worries her." The words of Leonard
Octon's letter came back; I could imagine the grimly humorous smile with
which he penned that bit of advice to me.

She went on with a sudden suppressed passion: "I want none of it--none
of it at all. I can make a happy life for myself. I can be useful--even
if I have to lie--in deeds if not in words--before I can be allowed to
be useful. Why am I to seek unhappiness, to seek fearfulness, to create
misery? The burden I bear now my own shoulders are broad enough to
carry. I had sooner carry it myself than have another groaning under it
at my side!"

"Cast your burden upon God, and He will bear it. This is penitence, if
only you would open the eyes of your heart!"

"Call it what you like," she said, a trifle impatiently. "Let it be
pride--pride for Leonard and pride for myself; let it be calculation,
precaution, fear, independence--what you will. You shall do your own
name-giving, and you may give the name that satisfies your theories. But
I have given you my names for it and my account of what I feel. Feeling
that, am I eager to marry Amyas Lacey? I'm not eager, Mr. Alison."

There was a moment's pause. The sound of a horse trotting up to the
house fell on my ears; Jenny gave me a quick glance. Alison seemed not
to notice; he was looking down at the floor, deep in thought. Jenny's
eyes returned to his face; she watched him with a smile as he sat
pondering her explanation.

"I respect your conclusion," he said at last. "Even if there were
nothing but the worldly point of view, I should say it was wise--as wise
as it is severe. I hope you may find better reasons still for it, and
new sources of strength to carry it out."

"You shall hope--and we shall see," she answered, not carelessly, but
rather with an honest skepticism which was willing to respect his
prepossessions, but would pay them no insincere homage.

"There is more for me to do than merely to hope--but enough of that just
now." He smiled a little, for the first time in the interview. "I
mustn't be too instant out of season. But if tha