e himself proposed turning
back, and took me home. As we neared the hotel I could not resist
asking him why he had not come home with me that night in the carriage
instead of walking, or running rather, beside it.

Such a strange look came over his face as I asked him, and his
lips set with a stern expression as he said stiffly, icily, "I had
realized, Miss Linton, how utterly different our ways of looking at
life must be; or else perhaps it is that you do not hold me to be
enough of a knight to consider a woman's position before my own
comfort and pleasure."

"I don't understand you," said I, bewildered. "I _asked_ you to get
into the carriage."

"I know it," he replied; "but in such matters no gentleman can allow
a woman's kindly impulse of courtesy to compromise her in any way: he
must think first of her, and all the more because she has thought of
him."

"What do you mean by compromise?" I exclaimed. "I am quite independent
enough of public opinion to be a free agent in such matters: you must
not forget that I am a very different woman from a society belle."

"Quite true," he answered, stung by my tone, "but I do not claim to be
unsexed because--because--" He stammered.

"Because I am? You are very right to live according to your lights,
Mr. Lawrence, but I must decline to see life by them. Good-night!" His
tone was more than I could bear, and I turned abruptly from him: we
had reached the hotel, and without a word more I ran up stairs to my
parlor. The door was ajar: I entered hastily and pushed it to, but he
had followed me on the instant, and now stood with it in his hand.

"I cannot let you send me away without saying one word," he said. "I
never meant to say that you were unsexed. I beg you will forgive me if
I offended you. I had no right in the world to judge for you. It was a
presumptuous impulse to protect, to guard you that prompted my action
the other night--my words just now. Forgive me. As for my prejudices,
they shall not displease you again: only remember as my excuse that
a man of my class has but one way of looking at a woman
whom--he--" He drew a long breath, hesitated, and then said with an
effort--"admires."

The word was cold and formal, but his voice and manner were warm and
earnest. His mood seemed changed: he seemed again near me, and an
irresistible attraction toward him possessed me, body and soul. There
was something in his very attitude, as he stood by the door with his
head be