ter. You know how quickly
I guessed Charlie's secret: surely you can speak to me, who am her
friend, of your affection for Gladys.'

I saw him shrink a little at that, and his honest brown eyes were full of
pain.

'My affection for Gladys,' he repeated, in a low voice. 'You are very
frank, Ursula; but somehow I do not seem to mind it. I never care for
Miss Darrell to speak to me on the subject, although she has been so
kind; in fact, no one could have been kinder. We can only act up to our
own natures: it is certainly not her fault, but only my misfortune, that
her sympathy jars on me.'

Max's words gave me acute pain.

'Surely you have not chosen Miss Darrell for your _confidante_, Max?'

'I have chosen no one,' he returned, with gentle rebuke at my vehemence.
'Circumstances made Miss Darrell acquainted with my unlucky attachment.
She did all she could to help me, and out of common gratitude I could not
refuse to listen to her well-meant efforts to comfort me.'

I remained silent from sheer dismay. Things were far worse than I had
imagined. I began to lose hope from the moment I heard Miss Darrell had
been mixed up in the affair; the thought sickened me. I could hardly bear
to hear Max speak; and yet how was I to help him unless he made me
acquainted with the real state of the case?

'I suppose I had better tell you all from the beginning,' he said, rather
dejectedly; 'that is, as far as I know myself, for I can hardly tell you
when I began to love Gladys. I call her Gladys to myself,' with a faint
smile, 'and it comes naturally to me. I ought to have said Miss
Hamilton.'

'But not to me, Max,' I returned eagerly.

'What does it matter what I call her? She will never take the only name
I want to give her!' was the melancholy reply to this. 'I only know one
thing, Ursula, that for three years--ay, and longer than that--she has
been the one woman in the world to me, and that as long as she and I live
no other woman shall ever cross the threshold of the vicarage as its
mistress.'

'Has it gone so deep as that, my poor Max?'

'Yes,' he returned briefly. 'But we need not enter into that part of the
subject; a man had best keep his own counsel in such matters. I want to
tell you bare facts, Ursula; we may as well leave feelings alone. If you
can help me to understand one or two points that are still misty to my
comprehension, you will do me good service.'

'I will try my very best for you both.'

'Thank you,