ike to have taken a word back to young Siddons,' I hinted.
'Just to show you cared a little.'

"'But I don't!' she burst out. 'I don't! He bothered me to let him come
and see me and I said--I don't know what I said. Tell him anything you
like. I don't care. I'm sick of it all there!'

"'You are making it very hard for me,' I said, gently, and she flung
round suddenly and faced me, her eyes shining, her lips parted in a
rather mirthless smile. She was an extraordinarily beautiful creature
just then. Her face, with its slightly broad, firmly modelled nostrils,
the small ears set close under the cloud of soft dark hair, and the
thick black eyebrows, was informed with a kind of radiance that
heightened the sinister impression of her scorn. She regarded me
steadfastly as though she had had her curiosity suddenly aroused.

"'You!' she said. 'Hard for you? What is there hard for you anywhere?
_You_ don't take any chances. Humph!' and she turned away again.

"'Just what does that mean?' I enquired. 'If you don't care anything
about young Siddons, you're hardly likely to care much about any of the
rest of us.'

"'No?' she said, tauntingly. 'No?'

"'I offered you my sympathy,' I began, and she turned on me again.

"'This?' she asked, holding up the address I had given her. 'What's the
good of this, if I wanted help?'

"'But what can I do?' I insisted. 'Use me. Tell me what you want me to
do!'

"'Well,' she said in a dry, hard voice and looking away out to sea. 'I
suppose you know what a girl in my position usually wants of a single
man, don't you?'

"'But, my child,' I said, 'this is extraordinary!'

"'Oh, don't '_my child_' me,' she retorted in a passion. 'I thought you
understood.'

"Well, I suppose I had understood in a vague sort of way, but I
certainly had not credited her with any active designs of this sort. And
while I sat beside her reflecting upon the precarious nature of a
bachelor's existence, I found she had glanced round upon me again, her
expression at once critical and derisive. She saw through my sentimental
interest in her affairs. She knew that at the first signal of danger to
my own peace and position I would sheer off, regretfully but swiftly. Of
course she was perfectly right. The mere thought of her father and his
mangy lieutenant was sufficient. She had so much against her. It was
horrible. As I sat there counting up the handicaps which Fate had
imposed upon her I was aware of that critical