Are you aware of that?"

She nodded. "There was nothing to write. And I've been very busy."

He drew in his breath, held it for a minute, and let it go again
explosively.

"Charlotte," said he, presently, "it seems to me I've lost ground with
you. I wish I knew why. You know perfectly well that I won't bother you
with my suit if you won't listen to it,--at least, I won't bother you
with it all the time. I don't promise to give up hope. But what I can't
bear is to have you treat me as if you wouldn't have even my friendship
any longer. It hurts to hear you say I have no right to care whether you
live in a comfortable home or not."

She turned impulsively. "Then I take it back. You have a certain right,
it's true. You have been a good friend, and I owe you much. It's because
I'm foolishly sensitive about this little cottage. I can see, of course,
that it looks like a poor place to a man who lives in one of the finest
houses in the State of Maryland, but I can't let that influence me. If
you happened to be the sort of man who loves to go off into the woods and
live in a log shack for a whole hunting-season you'd understand its charm
for me. I don't in the least mind washing my face in a tin basin. You do
mind."

"Not when you offer it. But it's not the tin basin I object to. That
is--"

"It _is_ the tin basin. You don't like to see a woman live in such a
plain way. But I tell you this, Mr. Brant: she can be just as much a
woman of refinement--"

"My dear girl--"

"Yes, I lost my temper for a minute," she admitted. "I shouldn't have
said that. I shouldn't offend you by implying that you don't know it.
What I mean is that the luxuries you consider essential are not
essential. I was brought up among them. I loved them as you do. It is
good for me to do without them--I am conscious of it every day. I shall
be a stronger woman and a better woman if I can learn not to care."

"But you haven't wholly learned yet." He said it with satisfaction.

"_I have learned!_" She flung it at him. "I don't mind living in
this simple way, except when a man like you comes along and tries,
deliberately tries, to make me conscious of it."

He leaned toward her with a sudden, passionate gesture. "Charlotte,
forgive me! It is because I long so to take you away from it, to give
you the sort of home you have known in the old days. It fits you so
well--that sort of home. You were a princess in the old home; you would
be a queen in a new