ling from his heart, banish
this girl from his eyes? Why could he not be wholly true to her who
was and always had been wholly true to him? Horrible--this will-less,
nerveless feeling, this paralysis, as if he were a puppet moved by a
cruel hand. And, as once before, it seemed to him that the girl was
sitting there in Sylvia's chair in her dark red frock, with her eyes
fixed on him. Uncannily vivid--that impression!... A man could not go on
long with his head in Chancery like this, without becoming crazed!

It was growing dusk on Saturday afternoon when he gave up that
intolerable waiting and opened the studio door to go to Nell. It was
now just two days since he had seen or heard of her. She had spoken of a
dance for that very night--of his going to it. She MUST be ill!

But he had not taken six steps when he saw her coming. She had on a grey
furry scarf, hiding her mouth, making her look much older. The moment
the door was shut she threw it off, went to the hearth, drew up a little
stool, and, holding her hands out to the fire, said:

"Have you thought about me? Have you thought enough now?"

And he answered: "Yes, I've thought, but I'm no nearer."

"Why? Nobody need ever know you love me. And if they did, I wouldn't
care."

Simple! How simple! Glorious, egoistic youth!

He could not speak of Sylvia to this child--speak of his married life,
hitherto so dignified, so almost sacred. It was impossible. Then he
heard her say:

"It can't be wrong to love YOU! I don't care if it is wrong," and saw
her lips quivering, and her eyes suddenly piteous and scared, as if
for the first time she doubted of the issue. Here was fresh torment!
To watch an unhappy child. And what was the use of even trying to make
clear to her--on the very threshold of life--the hopeless maze that he
was wandering in! What chance of making her understand the marsh of mud
and tangled weeds he must drag through to reach her. "Nobody need know."
So simple! What of his heart and his wife's heart? And, pointing to his
new work--the first man bewitched by the first nymph--he said:

"Look at this, Nell! That nymph is you; and this man is me." She got
up, and came to look. And while she was gazing he greedily drank her in.
What a strange mixture of innocence and sorcery! What a wonderful young
creature to bring to full knowledge of love within his arms! And he
said: "You had better understand what you are to me--all that I shall
never know again; ther