e worse for your foolish performance this
morning?" Her voice was even and unmodulated, not too friendly and not
too cold.

"I am, and I am not. I am unspeakably the worse in that I displeased
you. Will you forgive me?"

"I will forgive you," in the same tone.

"Do you mean it? Do you mean you will forgive me what I said to you
that--the other night?"

"I did not say that," she answered, a little weariness sounding with the
words. Claudius's face fell.

"I am sorry," he said very simply.

"So am I. I am disappointed in you more than I can say. You are just
like all the others, and I thought you were different. Do you not
understand me?"

"Not entirely, though I will try to. Will you not tell me just what you
mean to say?"

"I think I will," she answered, looking up, but not towards Claudius.
She hesitated a moment and then continued, "We are not children, Dr.
Claudius; let us speak plainly, and not misunderstand each other." She
glanced round the cabin as if to see if they were alone. Apparently she
was not satisfied. "Move my chair nearer to the sofa, please," she
added; and he rose and did her bidding.

"I have not much to say," she went on, "but I do not want to say it
before the whole ship's company. It is this: I thought I had found in
you a friend, a man who would be to me what no one has ever been--a
friend; and I am disappointed, for you want to be something else. That
is all, except that it must not be thought of, and you must go."

An Englishman would have reproached her with having given him
encouragement; an Italian would have broken out into a passionate
expression of his love, seeking to kindle her with his own fire. But the
great, calm Northman clasped his hands together firmly on his knee and
sat silent.

"You must go--" she repeated.

"I cannot go," he said honestly.

"That is all the more reason why you should go at once," was the
feminine argument with which she replied.

"Let us go back to two days ago, and be as we were before. Will you not
forget it?"

"We cannot--you cannot, and I cannot. You are not able to take back your
words or to deny them."

"May God forbid!" said he very earnestly. "But if you will let me be
your friend, I will promise to obey you, and I will not say anything
that will displease you."

"You cannot," she repeated; and she smiled bitterly.

"But I can, and I will, if you will let me. I am very strong, and I will
keep my word;" and indeed he looked th