What have we really to disagree
about?"

He managed to be very convincing. He shewed that for a woman, life in
her father's house is far less free than in her own home; that existence
could be moulded to any shape she pleased. If Hadria hesitated only on
this account her last reason was gone. It was not fair to him. He had
been patient. He had kept silence for many months. But he could endure
the suspense no longer. He took her hand. Then suddenly she rose.

"No, no. I can't, I can't," she cried desperately.

"I will not listen to denial," he said following her. "I cannot stand a
second disappointment. You have allowed me to hope."

"How? When? Never!" she exclaimed.

"Ah, yes, Hadria. I am older than you and I have more experience. Do you
think a man will cease to hope while he continues to see the woman he
loves?"

Hadria turned very pale.

"You seemed to have forgotten--your sister assured me--Ah, it was
treacherous, it was cruel. She took advantage of my ignorance, my
craving for companionship."

"No, it is you who are cruel, Hadria, to make such accusations. I do not
claim the slightest consideration because you permitted those practices.
But you cannot suppose that my feeling has not been confirmed and
strengthened since I have seen you again. Why should you turn from me?
Why may I not hope to win you? If you have no repugnance to me, why
should not I have a chance? Hadria, Hadria, answer me, for heaven's
sake. Oh, if I could only understand what is in your mind!"

She would have found it a hard task to enlighten him. He had succeeded,
to some extent, in lulling her fears, not in banishing them, for a
sinister dread still muttered its warning beneath the surface thoughts.

The strength of Temperley's emotion had stirred her. The magic of
personal influence had begun to tell upon her. It was so hard not to
believe when someone insisted with such certainty, with such obvious
sincerity, that everything would be right. He seemed so confident that
she could make him happy, strange as it appeared. Perhaps after all----?
And what a release from the present difficulties. But could one trust? A
confused mass of feeling struggled together. A temptation to give the
answer that would cause pleasure was very strong, and beneath all lurked
a trembling hope that perhaps this was the way of escape. In apparent
contradiction to this, or to any other hope, lay a sense of fatality, a
sad indifference, interrupted at mom