sement_ are necessary to a lover's character.
But this had arisen from two causes, and lukewarmness in his love had
not been either of them. He had been compelled to feel that he must
wait for the fruition of his love; and therefore had waited. And then
he had been utterly devoid of any feeling of doubt in her he loved.
She had decided that they should wait. And so he had waited as secure
away from her as he could have been with her.

But his idea of a woman's love, of the purity and sanctity of her
feelings, had been too high. He had left his betrothed to live
without him, frequently without seeing him for months, and yet he
had thought it utterly impossible that she should hold confidential
intercourse with another man. We have seen how things fell out with
him. The story need not be repeated. He was shocked, outraged, torn
to the heart's core; but he loved as warmly, perhaps more warmly than
ever.

What he now expected it is impossible to describe; but during that
first fortnight of seclusion in the midst of London, he did half
expect, half hope that something would turn up. He waited and waited,
still assuring himself that his resolve was inviolable, and that
nothing should make him renew his engagement: and yet he hoped for
something. There was a weight on his heart which then might have been
removed.

But no sign was made. We have seen how Adela, who felt for him, had
striven in vain. No sign was made; and at the end of the fortnight he
roused himself, shook his mane, and asked himself what he should do.

In the first place, there should be no mystery. There were those
among his friends to whom he had felt himself bound to speak of his
engagement when it was made, and to them he felt himself bound to
communicate the fact now that it was unmade. He wrote accordingly to
Arthur Wilkinson; he wrote to Harcourt; and determined to go down to
Hadley. He would have written also to his uncle, but he had never
done so, and hardly knew how to commence a correspondence.

His letter to Harcourt had been a difficult task to him, but at last
it was finished in a very few words. He did not at all refer to what
had taken place at Richmond, or allude in any way to the nature of
the cause which had produced this sudden disrupture. He merely said
that his engagement with Miss Waddington was broken off by mutual
consent, and that he thought it best to let his friend know this in
order that mistakes and consequent annoyance might