l, yes, Sergius; I think I do thoroughly understand you. My great
friendship alone might well make me do that."

The face of Sergius grew a little softer in expression, but he did not
assent.

"Perhaps it might blind you," he said.

"I don't think so."

"Well, then, now, if you understand me--tell me--"

Sergius broke off suddenly.

"This champagne is awfully good," he said, filling his glass again.

"What were you going to say?" Anthony asked.

"I don't know--nothing."

Anthony tried to conceal his disappointment. Sergius had seemed to be on
the verge of over-leaping the barrier which lay between them. Once that
barrier was overleapt, or broken down, Anthony felt that the mission he
had imposed upon himself would stand a chance of being accomplished,
that his gnawing anxiety would be laid to rest. But once more Sergius
diffused around him a strange and cold atmosphere of violent and knowing
reserve. He went away from the table and sat down close to the fire.
From there he threw over his shoulder the remark:--

"No man or woman ever understands another--really."

III

Anthony did not reply for a moment and Sergius continued:--

"You, for instance, could never guess what I should do in certain
circumstances."

"Such as--"

"Oh, in a thousand things."

"I should have a shrewd idea."

"No."

Anthony didn't contradict him, but got up from the dinner-table and
joined him by the fire, glass in hand.

"I might not let you know how much I guessed, how much I knew."

Sergius laughed.

"Oh, ignorance always surrounds itself with mystery," he said.

"Knowledge need not go naked."

Again the eyes of the two friends met in the firelight, and over the
face of Sergius there ran a new expression. There was an awakening of
wonder in it, but no uneasiness. Anxiety was far away from him that
night. When passion has gripped a man, passion strong enough, resolute
enough, to over-ride all the prejudices of civilisation, all the
promptings of the coward within us, whose voice, whining, we name
prudence, the semi-comprehension, the criticism of another man cannot
move him. Sergius wondered for an instant whether Anthony suspected
against what his heart was beating. That was all.

While he wondered, the clock chimed the half hour after nine. He heard
it.

"I shall have to go very soon," he said.

"You can't. Just listen to the rain."

"Rain! What's that got to do with it?"

Sergius spoke with a sudden un