his face now; he only looks down at her with eyes full of
love and gentleness--for life as yet holds nothing dearer or better for
him than that little white-haired old woman. Only for a minute, and then
he leaves go of her hands, and passes on down the room, speaking to the
guests whom he knows.

"He does not see me," says Helen, bitterly, to herself; "he will go on
into the next room, and never know that I am here."

But he had seen her perfectly. Next to the woman he most wishes to see in
a room, the one whom a man first catches sight of is the woman he would
sooner were not there. He had seen Helen the very instant he came in, but
he had noticed thankfully that some one was talking to her, and he said
to himself that there was no occasion for him to hurry to her side; it
was not as if they were openly engaged; there could be no necessity for
him to rush into slavery at once; he would speak to her, of course,
by-and-by; and whenever he came to her he well knew that he would be
equally welcomed: he was so sure of her. Nothing on earth or under Heaven
is so fatal to a man's love as that. There was no longer any uncertainty;
there was none of the keenness of pursuit dear to the old hunting
instinct inherent in man; there was not even the charm of variety in her
moods. She was always the same to him; always she pouted a little at
first, and looked ill-tempered, and reproached him; and always she came
round again at his very first kind word, and poured out her heart in a
torrent of worship at his feet. Maurice knew it all by heart, the sulks
and the cross words, and then the passionate denials, and the wild
protestations of her undying love. He was sorry for her, too, in his way;
he was too tender-hearted, too chivalrous, to be anything but kind to
her; but though he was sorry, he could not love her; and, oh! how
insufferably weary of her he was!

Presently he did come up to her, and took the seat by her side just
vacated by the attache. The little serio-comedy instantly repeated
itself.

A little pout and a little toss of the head.

"You have been as long coming to speak to me as you possibly could be."

"Do you think it would look well if I had come rushing up to you the
instant I came in?"

"You need not, at all events, have stood talking for ten minutes to that
great black-eyed Lady Anderleigh. Of course, if you like her better than
me, you can go back to her."

"Of course I can, if I choose, you silly little