an--have me for your own to-day, and go away
to-morrow--and then, perhaps, think of me at times as one among a host
of others you have 'possessed'?"

He shot a glance at her, almost of hatred, but said no word.

"Perhaps," went on the girl calmly, "perhaps you too have not been
what I hoped and thought. If you had...."

"What then?" he asked quickly, as if in challenge.

"Then you would not--speak as you are doing now," she answered
evasively. "And perhaps what makes you angry now is only this--that
you can never have more than you are able to take yourself."

He looked at her in wonder.

"And perhaps"--her voice was scarcely audible now--"perhaps you cannot
take more than you are able to keep?"

She looked down in confusion, hardly knowing what she had said, only
that she had been forced to say it.

He sat watching her for a while thoughtfully, as if he had heard
something new and unexpected, and was pondering over it.

"You must have known yourself that I could never keep--or keep
to--anyone," he said at last.

"I know that," she answered; "you don't want to."

It was as if a fine, sharp thorn had pierced him to the heart, and
left its point there. The two sat looking at each other without a
word.

"And if I would...." He grasped her hand earnestly. "Do you think I
might dare?"

The girl turned pale, and did not speak.

"Answer me," he said insistently.

"Surely each must know that for himself," she answered at last,
speaking with difficulty.

"Kyllikki, Kyllikki, if you only knew!" he cried sorrowfully, and took
her hands in his. Then a sudden coldness came over him once more.

"And if I were to dare," he said, "there is one other besides you and
me."

"Are you afraid of him?" she asked sharply.

"No. But if he turned me from his door in scorn...."

"If the thought of that counts for so much," she said, with emphasis,
"then it were better not to ask. For, after--whom would you love more,
do you think; yourself, or the one you think you love?"

He winced under her glance.

"If it were for your sake I feared?" he asked, with some feeling.

"No need of that--as long as I know you are sure in your own mind. And
if you were sure--you need have no fear for me."

He looked at her in surprise and admiration.

"You are a strange girl, Kyllikki," he said at last. "I am only just
beginning to understand you. You are not as I hoped you would be--but
you are something more. I know what it must hav