gth to observe them.
I will not be one of whom it can be said: 'He can rule others,
himself----!"

"No one will know."

Miltoun turned away.

"I shall know," he said; but he saw clearly that she did not understand
him. Her face had a strange, brooding, shut-away look, as though he had
frightened her. And the thought that she could not understand, angered
him.

He said, stubbornly: "No, I can't remain in public life."

"But what has it to do with politics? It's such a little thing."

"If it had been a little thing to me, should I have left you at
Monkland, and spent those five weeks in purgatory before my illness? A
little thing!"

She exclaimed with sudden fire:

"Circumstances aye the little thing; it's love that's the great thing."

Miltoun stared at her, for the first time understanding that she had a
philosophy as deep and stubborn as his own. But he answered cruelly:

"Well! the great thing has conquered me!"

And then he saw her looking at him, as if, seeing into the recesses of
his soul, she had made some ghastly discovery. The look was so mournful,
so uncannily intent that he turned away from it.

"Perhaps it is a little thing," he muttered; "I don't know. I can't see
my way. I've lost my bearings; I must find them again before I can do
anything."

But as if she had not heard, or not taken in the sense of his words, she
said again:

"Oh! don't let us alter anything; I won't ever want what you can't
give."

And this stubbornness, when he was doing the very thing that would give
him to her utterly, seemed to him unreasonable.

"I've had it out with myself," he said. "Don't let's talk about it any
more."

Again, with a sort of dry anguish, she murmured:

"No, no! Let us go on as we are!"

Feeling that he had borne all he could, Miltoun put his hands on her
shoulders, and said: "That's enough!"

Then, in sudden remorse, he lifted her, and clasped her to him.

But she stood inert in his arms, her eyes closed, not returning his
kisses.

CHAPTER XVII

On the last day before Parliament rose, Lord Valleys, with a light
heart, mounted his horse for a gallop in the Row. Though she was a blood
mare he rode her with a plain snaffle, having the horsemanship of
one who has hunted from the age of seven, and been for twenty years a
Colonel of Yeomanry. Greeting affably everyone he knew, he maintained
a frank demeanour on all subjects, especially of Government policy,
secretly enjoying the s