ll, and wanted all--knew for certain and for ever that she could
not have all.

It was "nothing" he had said! Nothing! That for months he had been
thinking at least a little of another woman besides herself. She believed
what he had told her, that there had been no more than a kiss--but was it
nothing that they had reached that kiss? This girl--this cousin--who
held all the cards, had everything on her side--the world, family
influence, security of life; yes, and more, so terribly much more--a
man's longing for the young and unawakened. This girl he could marry!
It was this thought which haunted her. A mere momentary outbreak of
man's natural wildness she could forgive and forget--oh, yes! It was the
feeling that it was a girl, his own cousin, besieging him, dragging him
away, that was so dreadful. Ah, how horrible it was--how horrible! How,
in decent pride, keep him from her, fetter him?

She heard him come up to his dressing-room, and while he was still there,
stole out and down. Life must go on, the servants be hoodwinked, and so
forth. She went to the piano and played, turning the dagger in her
heart, or hoping forlornly that music might work some miracle. He came
in presently and stood by the fire, silent.

Dinner, with the talk needful to blinding the household--for what is more
revolting than giving away the sufferings of the heart?--was almost
unendurable and directly it was over, they went, he to his study, she
back to the piano. There she sat, ready to strike the notes if anyone
came in; and tears fell on the hands that rested in her lap. With all
her soul she longed to go and clasp him in her arms and cry: "I don't
care--I don't care! Do what you like--go to her--if only you'll love me
a little!" And yet to love--a LITTLE! Was it possible? Not to her!

In sheer misery she went upstairs and to bed. She heard him come up and
go into his dressing-room--and, at last, in the firelight saw him
kneeling by her.

"Gyp!"

She raised herself and threw her arms round him. Such an embrace a
drowning woman might have given. Pride and all were abandoned in an
effort to feel him close once more, to recover the irrecoverable past.
For a long time she listened to his pleading, explanations,
justifications, his protestations of undying love--strange to her and
painful, yet so boyish and pathetic. She soothed him, clasping his head
to her breast, gazing out at the flickering fire. In that hour, she r