k anything. I had spoken, once for all. I always thought
that for a man to offer himself twice was indelicate and unfair. I could
never have done it."

"That's very sweet in you," she said; and perhaps she would have praised
in the same terms the precisely opposite sentiment. "It's some comfort,"
she added, with a deep-fetched sigh, "to think I had to speak."

He laughed. "You didn't find it so easy to make love!"

"Oh, NOTHING is easy that men have to do!" she answered, with passionate
earnestness.

There are moments of extreme concession, of magnanimous admission, that
come but once in a lifetime.

XII.

Dr. Mulbridge did not wait for the time he had fixed for his return. He
may have judged that her tendency against him would strengthen by delay,
or he may have yielded to his own impatience in coming the next day. He
asked for Grace with his wonted abruptness, and waited for her coming in
the little parlor of the hotel, walking up and down the floor, with his
shaggy head bent forward, and his big hands clasped behind him.

As she hovered at the door before entering, she could watch him while
he walked the whole room's length away, and she felt a pang at sight of
him. If she could have believed that he loved her, she could not have
faced him, but must have turned and run away; and even as it was she
grieved for him. Such a man would not have made up his mind to this
step without a deep motive, if not a deep feeling. Her heart had been
softened so that she could not think of frustrating his ambition, if it
were no better than that, without pity. One man had made her feel very
kindly toward all other men; she wished in the tender confusion of
the moment that she need not reject her importunate suitor, whose
importunity even she could not resent.

He caught sight of her as soon as he made his turn at the end of the
room, and with a quick "Ah, Ah!" he hastened to meet her, with the smile
in which there was certainly something attractive. "You see I've come
back a day sooner than I promised. I haven't the sort of turnout you've
been used to, but I want you to drive with me." "I can't drive with you,
Dr. Mulbridge," she faltered.

"Well, walk, then. I should prefer to walk."

"You must excuse me," she answered, and remained standing before him.

"Sit down," he bade her, and pushed up a chair towards her. His
audacity, if it had been a finer courage, would have been splendid, and
as it was she helplessly ob