even if I had cared for him, I might have
had no influence." She spoke with humility.

"Lanse knew perfectly that I did not love him, he knew it when I
didn't," she went on. "And I really think--yes, I must say it--that if I
had cared for him even slightly, he would have been more guarded, would
have concealed more, spared me more; in little things, Lanse is kind.
But he knew that I shouldn't suffer, in that way at least. And it was
quite true; my real suffering--the worst suffering--has not come from
him at all; it has come from you. At first I had plans--I was too young
to give up all hope of something brighter some time. But my plans soon
came to an end; when I knew--discovered--that I was beginning to care
for you, all my hope turned to keeping in the one straight track that
lay before me. I did not think I should fail--"

"I can well believe that!" he interrupted.

"Oh, do not be harsh to me! you do not know--You think my will is
strong. But oh! it isn't--it isn't. When Lanse left me that second time,
and you were there with me, I knew then that there was nothing for it
but to go as far away from you as possible, and to go instantly;
anything less, no matter how I should disguise it, would be staying
because I wished to stay. And I did try to go; I would not enter that
hotel when I saw you on the shore--I went back to the empty house. I
dared not stay then. I _will_ not now."

"You do well to change the terms," he answered, with unsparing
bitterness, "it's nothing but will to-day, whatever it may once have
been. I don't believe about your not daring; I don't, in fact,
believe--that is, fully--anything you have said."

"Why, then, should I stay here talking longer?" She left the place and
entered the orange grove, which she was obliged to pass through on her
way to the house.

But he overtook her, he stepped in front and barred the way. "You have
been remarkably skilful. I demanded an explanation, I was evidently
going to make trouble. So you gave me this one: you said that you had,
unfortunately for yourself, begun to love me, that was the explanation
of everything; you threw me this to stop me, like a bone to a dog, so
that you could get comfortably away. But I have this to tell you: if you
had really loved me, you couldn't have argued quite so well! And you
couldn't go now, either, so self-complacently, leaving me here in my
pain."

"So be it," she said. She looked through the blossoming aisles to the
r