e lay in that the difference between two worlds
in her mind; and she fought against it with what strength she knew.

"I don't want to look into the future," she said bravely. "I hate
looking into the future. I'm happy in the present; why shouldn't I
remain so?"

"How will this prevent you? Doesn't it appeal to you at all, that
when we came to live together, I took up a certain responsibility
with you? I've got to fulfil that responsibility. This evening, when
we go back, I'm going to draw out some form of settlement which I
intend to place with you. I shall take it to my solicitor and get
it legalized to-morrow morning."

She leant forward across the table and touched his hand again. Her
lips were trembling; her whole face, which only a few moments before
was bright with cheerfulness, was now drawn, pinched with the
suffering and terror in her mind.

"Please don't," she said brokenly. "Please don't. I don't want any
settlement as long as you care for me. What is a settlement to me
if, as you say, you were to die? What good would it be to me then?
Do you think I could bear to go On living?"

He searched her face with amazement. "You mustn't talk foolishness
like this," he replied firmly, but not unkindly. "We've all got our
own lives to get through. We've all got to answer for them one by
one, and live them one by one as well. There's no condition of
relationship in existence, which can make a man and a woman one person
except in their imaginations and according to the fairy tales of the
Church. You're a dear, simple, little child to talk about not being
able to go on living if I were to peg out; but you would. You'd go
on living. There's no doubt in my mind, but that you'd love some one
else again."

"You little understand me," she exclaimed bitterly, "if you could
ever think that."

"Well--in that respect, at least, I believe I understand human
nature; and in that respect, too, I imagine it must be a surer
criterion from which to judge of such matters. I don't insist upon
it as a certainty--I only suppose it possible. But in any event you
would want money to live upon, and my mind is quite made up that I
ought to make a settlement on you. Why should you not want me to--eh?
Why?"

She hung her head. To tell him, when she had no definite proof that
he had thought of leaving her, might be to put the thought into his
mind. She could not tell him. But pride did not enter the matter in
the least. If it could have