stronger once; now I am
the weaker. Whatever pain I may have given you in the ups and downs of
our acquaintance I am sorry for, and would willingly repair all errors
of the past by--being amenable to reason in the future.'

It was impossible that Jocelyn should not feel a tender impulsion
towards this attractive and once independent woman, who from every
worldly point of view was an excellent match for him--a superior match,
indeed, except in money. He took her hand again and held it awhile, and
a faint wave of gladness seemed to flow through her. But no--he could go
no further. That island girl, in her coquettish Sunday frock and little
hat with its bunch of cock's feathers held him as by strands of Manila
rope. He dropped Nichola's hand.

'I am leaving Budmouth to-morrow,' she said. 'That was why I felt I
must call. You did not know I had been there all through the Whitsun
holidays?'

'I did not, indeed; or I should have come to see you.'.

'I didn't like to write. I wish I had, now!'

'I wish you had, too, dear Mrs. Pine-Avon.'

But it was 'Nichola' that she wanted to be. As they reached the landau
he told her that he should be back in town himself again soon, and would
call immediately. At the moment of his words Avice Caro, now alone,
passed close along by the carriage on the other side, towards her house
hard at hand. She did not turn head or eye to the pair: they seemed to
be in her view objects of indifference.

Pierston became cold as a stone. The chill towards Nichola that the
presence of the girl,--sprite, witch, troll that she was--brought with
it came like a doom. He knew what a fool he was, as he had said. But he
was powerless in the grasp of the idealizing passion. He cared more for
Avice's finger-tips than for Mrs. Pine-Avon's whole personality.

Perhaps Nichola saw it, for she said mournfully: 'Now I have done all
I could! I felt that the only counterpoise to my cruelty to you in my
drawing-room would be to come as a suppliant to yours.'

'It is most handsome and noble of you, my very dear friend!' said he,
with an emotion of courtesy rather than of enthusiasm.

Then adieux were spoken, and she drove away. But Pierston saw only the
retreating Avice, and knew that he was helpless in her hands. The church
of the island had risen near the foundations of the Pagan temple, and
a Christian emanation from the former might be wrathfully torturing him
through the very false gods to whom he had devoted