ly and plainly, I will take your word, Una. Don't protest,
please--tell me truthfully, once for all: did you, or did you not, know
I loved you with all my heart?"

I wanted to say "No." In a sense I could have said it truthfully
enough, for I had no definite knowledge, but I remembered what Lorna had
told me about the heroine in the novel; I remembered Mrs Forbes's
wistful manner, and oh, a dozen little incidents too small to be written
down, when Wallace's own manner had told the truth only too plainly. He
was staring at me, poor boy, with his wan, miserable eyes, and I could
not tell a lie. I began to cry in a feeble, helpless kind of way, and
faltered out, "I--I thought you did, but I couldn't be sure. You know I
couldn't be sure, and it was only for a little while! I am going home
so soon that I didn't think it could matter."

He leant forward, leaning his head on his hands.

"Shall I tell you how much it matters?" he asked huskily. "It matters
just this, that you have spoilt my life! There was not a happier, more
contented fellow living than I was--before you came. I loved my work,
and loved my home. I intended to succeed in my profession, and the
future was full of interest. I would not have changed places with any
man on earth. Now!" he held out his right hand and snapped his fingers
expressively, "it is over; the zest is out of it all if you are not
there. If I had met you anywhere else it might have been easier, but
you have come right into the middle of my life, and if I would I shall
not be able to forget you. Every morning when I come down to breakfast
I shall look across the table and imagine you sitting facing me; I shall
see you wherever I go--like a ghost--in every room in the house, in
everything I do. That is the price I have to pay for your amusement.
You have made a fool of me, you whom I thought the type of everything
that was true and womanly. You knew that I loved you, but it didn't
matter to you what I suffered. You were going home soon--you would not
see it. It didn't matter!"

"No, no, no!" I cried in agony. "It isn't true. I am bad enough, but
not a heartless monster. I will tell you the whole truth. I was
miserable myself when I came here; ill and tired out, and sore because--
because they didn't care for me at home as much as I wanted. I always
want people to like me. I did at school--Lorna will tell you that I
did; and when you were nice to me it cheered me up, a