ennium."

"And now?" asked Alice.

"Now I see nothing. I am in the dark. I do not understand what has
happened to me."

"What we are in for now, no man can say," I remarked.

"It's the extraordinary restfulness that puzzles me," said Sarakoff.
"Here I have been sitting for hours and I feel no inclination to do
anything."

"The thing that is most extraordinary to me is the difficulty I have in
realizing how I spent my time formerly," said Alice. "Of course, father
is no bother now and meals have been cut down, but that does not account
for all of it. It seems as if I had been living in a kind of nightmare
in the past, from which I have suddenly escaped."

"What do you feel most inclined to do?" I asked.

"Nothing at present. I sit and think. It was difficult for me to make
myself come here to-day." She smiled suddenly. "Richard, it seems
strange to recall that we were engaged."

She spoke without any embarrassment and I answered her with equal ease.

"I hope you don't think our engagement is broken off, Alice. I think my
feelings towards you are unchanged."

"Ah!" exclaimed Sarakoff. "That is interesting. Are you sure of that,
Harden?"

"Not altogether," I answered tranquilly. "There is a lot to think out
before I can be sure, but I know that I feel towards Alice a great
sympathy."

"Sympathy!" the Russian exclaimed. "What are we coming to? Good heavens!
Is sympathy to be our strongest emotion? What do you think, Miss Annot."

"Sympathy is exactly what I feel," she replied. "Richard and I would be
very good companions. Isn't that more important than passion?"

"Is sympathy to be the bond between the sexes, then, and is all passion
and romance to die?" he exclaimed scornfully. He seemed to be struggling
with himself, as if he were trying to throw off some spell that held
him. "Surely I seem to recollect that yesterday life contained some
richer emotions than sympathy," he muttered. "What has come over us? Why
doesn't my blood quicken when I think of Leonora?" He burst into a
laugh. "Harden, this is comic. There is no other word for it. It is
simply comic."

"It may be comic, Sarakoff, but to speak candidly, I prefer my state
to-day to my state yesterday. Last night seems to me like a bad dream."
I got to my feet. "There is one thing I must see about as soon as
possible, and that is getting rid of this house. What an absurd place to
live in this is! It is a comic house, if you like--like a tomb."

The