could be induced to send her home, her head dropped on
her breast.

"What am I to do when I get there?" she murmured with an intonation so
just, with an accent so penetrating--the charm of her voice did not fail
her even in whispering--that Heyst seemed to see the illusion of human
fellowship on earth vanish before the naked truth of her existence, and
leave them both face to face in a moral desert as arid as the sands of
Sahara, without restful shade, without refreshing water.

She leaned slightly over the little table, the same little table at
which they had sat when they first met each other; and with no other
memories but of the stones in the streets her childhood had known, in
the distress of the incoherent, confused, rudimentary impressions of her
travels inspiring her with a vague terror of the world she said rapidly,
as one speaks in desperation:

"You do something! You are a gentleman. It wasn't I who spoke to you
first, was it? I didn't begin, did I? It was you who came along and
spoke to me when I was standing over there. What did you want to speak
to me for? I don't care what it is, but you must do something."

Her attitude was fierce and entreating at the same time--clamorous, in
fact though her voice had hardly risen above a breath. It was clamorous
enough to be noticed. Heyst, on purpose, laughed aloud. She nearly
choked with indignation at this brutal heartlessness.

"What did you mean, then, by saying 'command me!'?" she almost hissed.

Something hard in his mirthless stare, and a quiet final "All right,"
steadied her.

"I am not rich enough to buy you out," he went on, speaking with an
extraordinary detached grin, "even if it were to be done; but I can
always steal you."

She looked at him profoundly, as though these words had a hidden and
very complicated meaning.

"Get away now," he said rapidly, "and try to smile as you go."

She obeyed with unexpected readiness; and as she had a set of very good
white teeth, the effect of the mechanical, ordered smile was joyous,
radiant. It astonished Heyst. No wonder, it flashed through his mind,
women can deceive men so completely. The faculty was inherent in them;
they seemed to be created with a special aptitude. Here was a smile
the origin of which was well known to him; and yet it had conveyed a
sensation of warmth, had given him a sort of ardour to live which was
very new to his experience.

By this time she was gone from the table, and had jo