e day or two it
lives. My love for you is dead. I should not be happy with you, so why
make the pretence? I should not ask you to forgive me, only I am not
worth your remembrance for any reason. Let us shake hands and part not
too bitterly."

He stood silent, his head bowed. There was no thought in his mind, only
a sense of shame and of poignant regret.

"Believe me, it is for the best," she resumed, trying to smile. "And be
assured, the guilty party alone shall be condemned, should the world
discuss us!" She held out her hand. He took it and held it gently, in
sign that he bore her no ill-will.

XXIX

In the first profound depression into which this unforeseen occurrence
had plunged him, Wyndham remained totally indifferent to his freedom.
His thought in a feeble way reached out, recalling her words, lingering
on her crowning confession. Suddenly he laughed out aloud. How much
greater the irony of his life than even he had imagined! For the second
time he and Lady Betty had come together, only voluntarily to part that
they might not disturb the happiness of this other life! How they had
tortured themselves; how Lady Betty had sought deliberate martyrdom,
staying near him only long enough to school him to perfect loyalty to
Alice! "Whilst I was fretting my heart away," his lips murmured, "lest I
should wound her with a chance word, she was vibrating again towards her
own kind, and was planning her retreat. Surely the gods are pulling the
strings and making us poor puppets dance for their amusement!"

And then he thought of the Hampstead street miles away, where he had
passed so many years of his life in suffering and degradation; and the
sense of its distance helped him. Were he still in the old studio, the
sense of the Robinsons' house within a stone's throw would have been
intolerable. He would hardly have dared to set foot out of doors for
fear of the painful accident of stumbling up against one of the family.
He desired no further explanations and apologies. He shuddered at the
very idea. Here at least he could take shelter silently within his own
pride.

And the thought of his pride made him rise up again, and pace to and fro
vigorously. It was beneath him to admit that that had been wounded. But
he came to a standstill, and the blood rushed to his temples at the
abrupt remembrance that all the prosperity and success that must still
remain his had come to him through the Robinsons. Were not the
humi