o that, Mabel?'

'I did not know that there ever was anything between us, as you call
it,' she said. 'But of course, after this, friendship is impossible.
We cannot help meeting. I shall not even tell my mother of this, for
Dolly's sake, and so this house will still be open to you. But if you
force me to protect Dolly or myself, you will come here no more.'

Her scornful indifference only filled him with a more furious desire
to triumph over it; he had felt so secure of her that morning, and now
she had placed this immeasurable distance between them. He had never
felt the full power of her beauty till then, as she stood there with
that haughty pose of the head and the calm contempt in her eyes; he
had seen her in most moods--playfully perverse, coldly civil, and
unaffectedly gracious and gentle--and in none of them had she made his
heart ache with the mad passion that mastered him now.

'It shall not end like this!' he said violently; 'I won't let you make
a mountain of a molehill in this way, Mabel, because it suits you to
do so. You have no right to judge me by what a child chooses to
imagine I said!'

'I judge you by the effects of what you did say. I can remember very
well that you had a cruel tongue as a boy--you are quite able to
torture a child with it still.'

'It is your tongue that is cruel!' he retorted; 'but you shall be just
to me. I love you, Mabel--whether you like it or not--you shall not
throw me off like this. Do you hear? You liked me well enough before
all this! I will force you to think better of me; you shall own it
one day. No, I'm mad to talk like this--I only ask you to forgive
me--to let me hope still!'

He came forward as he spoke and tried to take her hands, but she put
them quickly behind her. 'Don't dare to come nearer!' she said; 'I
thought I had made you feel something of what I think of you. What can
I say more? Hope! do you think I could ever trust a man capable of
such deliberate wickedness as you have shown by that single action?--a
kind of malice that I hardly think can be human. No, you had better
not hope for that. As for forgiving you, I can't even do that now;
some day, perhaps, when Dolly has quite forgotten, I may be able to
forget too, but not till then. Have I made you understand yet? Is that
enough?'

Caffyn was still standing where she had checked his advance; his face
was very grey and drawn, and his eyes were fixed on the Eastern rug at
his feet. He gave a short