ealise the futility of trying to force one's
inclinations in such matters? Again she could only shake her head; she
was out of her depth. Meantime, behind her, Theo was waiting for his
answer. Suddenly the horrors of the situation seemed to burst on her
from all sides. What had she done? Accepted this boy because he had
money, and because she disliked her mother and her mother's friends;
then she had, finding that she loved her future father-in-law,
deliberately torn from his eyes the veil of family sentiment that had
protected him from her, and later, when he had by an accident learned
that she was to be loved, and that he loved her, she had by an ignoble
trick kept him in England, refusing to let him play the decent part he
had chosen. What was she, then, to have done this abominable and
traitorous thing?

"Brigit--is it so--horrible to you?"

There was in his voice something like a repressed sob, and she had an
extravagant horror of melodrama. If he wept she would, she knew, lose
her temper.

"Listen, Theo. I--I will tell you to-night. I mean, I'll set a date.
Only you must go now. I--I have an engagement."

"Then----"

"Then you are a goose to be so upset! I must think it over. I know I'm
queer and--rather horrid, but--I have not changed. You knew what I was
when you asked me to marry you. And--I never pretended to be--romantic,
did I?"

He watched her dumbly. She had never looked to him more beautiful than
at that moment in her simple blue frock, her hands behind her, her eyes
almost deprecating. He rose with an effort. "All right, then. To-night.
Thank you, Brigit."

As full of humble doubts as he had been the night he asked her to marry
him, his honest eyes shining with the tears she had arrested in their
course, he kissed her hand and withdrew.

When she had heard the front door close she went to a mirror on the wall
and looked at herself.

"And now, you loathsome creature," she said aloud, fiercely, "you must
make up your mind what you are going to do."

Like many nervous people, she had a habit of walking while she thought
hard, and now after a few turns up and down the overcrowded room she
went upstairs, put on a hat, and, leaving the excited Tommy a prey to a
most maddening attack of thwarted curiosity, left the house.

She walked rapidly, looking straight ahead, seeing nothing, a rather
ferocious frown causing many people to stare at her in surprise. She
wore a delicately hued French frock an