ccounts," said Hallin, musing. "He must do
it with intention. He is not the man to let himself be be-Capua-ed all
at once."

"Oh dear, no!" said Aldous, drily. "He does it with intention. Nobody
supposes him to be the mere toady. All the same I think he may very well
overrate the importance of the class he is trying to make use of, and
its influence. Have you been following the strike 'leaders' in the
_Clarion?_"

"No!" cried Hallin, flushing. "I would not read them for the world! I
might not be able to go on giving to the strike."

Aldous fell silent, and Hallin presently saw that his mind had harked
back to the one subject that really held the depths of it. The truest
friendship, Hallin believed, would be never to speak to him of Marcella
Boyce--never to encourage him to dwell upon her, or upon anything
connected with her. But his yearning, sympathetic instinct would not let
him follow his own conviction.

"Miss Boyce, you know, has been here two or three times while you have
been away," he said quickly, as he got up to post a letter.

Aldous hesitated; then he said--

"Do you gather that her nursing life satisfies her?"

Hallin made a little face.

"Since when has she become a person likely to be 'satisfied' with
anything? She devotes to it a splendid and wonderful energy. When she
comes here I admire her with all my heart, and pity her so much that I
could cry over her!"

Aldous started.

"I don't know what you mean," he said, as he too rose and laid his hand
on Hallin's for a moment. "But don't tell me! It's best for me not to
talk of her. If she were associated in my mind with any other man than
Wharton, I think somehow I could throw the whole thing off. But
this--this--" He broke off; then resumed, while he pretended to look for
a parcel he had brought with him, by way of covering an agitation he
could not suppress. "A person you and I know said to me the other day,
'It may sound unromantic, but I could never think of a woman who had
thrown me over except _with ill-will._' The word astonished me, but
sometimes I understand it. I find myself full of _anger_ to the most
futile, the most ridiculous degree!"

He drew himself up nervously, already scorning his own absurdity, his
own breach of reticence. Hallin laid his hands on the taller man's
shoulders, and there was a short pause.

"Never mind, old fellow," said Hallin, simply, at last, as his hands
dropped; "let's go and do our work. What is it you