folly, or change of
feeling, or misfortune, or whatever it was, no matter what, I should
enter into it and understand her. But Lucia to-night treated me like a
stranger, fenced with me like an enemy. I have no clue as to what to
think and what to believe. Simply, I see that she is no longer keen on
the matter, and there is a large possibility of my not having her at
all. By God! if it is so"--

I broke off into silence. After all, there is no use in talk; and the
knives twisted backwards and forwards in my head helped to stop speech.

We walked on in silence. The streets were very quiet here; we had left
the Grants' late, and now it was getting towards morning. We verged
directly towards Knightsbridge; for some time our steps were the only
sound. Then, after a pause, Dick said quietly--

"I think, Victor, you are going on a wrong tack altogether. You don't
make enough allowance for the fact that she is a girl, and has not seen
you for a year, remember. It is all very well for you to talk of
to-the-point confessions and plain statements, but practically, if a
girl were to talk as frankly as you would like, I am afraid the idea of
modesty would rather come to grief."

"Oh! modesty," I said impatiently, "be--Modesty! It's all very well as
a pretty, becoming, every-day fashion, but it should be laid aside in
the serious matters of life. It is an artificiality; admirable, useful,
excellent as a daily conventional rule, but it should yield when there
is a great natural question at issue. Modesty! a fictitious,
artificial, inculcated shame to intrude itself between two people
considering gravely the vital matter of their love, their union, their
future life! It's preposterous!"

"It very often does so," remarked Dick. "I am not saying whether it
should or it shouldn't."

"No," I answered more calmly; "and I entirely see what you mean, and I
think you are perfectly right there. Lucia is steeped in fashion,
soaked through with the prejudice and bringing up of her own rank. And
I suppose I do like it and expect it, certainly, as a general rule;
only, when the thing on hand is very important, and a society woman
fences with you behind a screen of elegant, delicate language, you feel
sometimes you would prefer the intelligible candour of a kitchen maid."

Dick laughed.

"I doubt the charm of the latter individual, Vic! You must have a
little more patience with this girl, and the confidence will come by
degrees, if you don