ou propose
it for an instant?'

Thus the nearly ended interview was again prolonged, and Viviette yielded
to all the passion of her first union with him. Time, however, was
merciless, and the hour approached midnight, and she was compelled to
depart. Swithin walked with her towards the house, as he had walked many
times before, believing that all was now smooth again between them, and
caring, it must be owned, very little for his fame as an expositor of the
southern constellations just then.

When they reached the silent house he said what he had not ventured to
say before, 'Fix the day--you have decided that it is to be soon, and
that I am not to go?'

But youthful Swithin was far, very far, from being up to the fond
subtlety of Viviette this evening. 'I cannot decide here,' she said
gently, releasing herself from his arm; 'I will speak to you from the
window. Wait for me.'

She vanished; and he waited. It was a long time before the window
opened, and he was not aware that, with her customary complication of
feeling, she had knelt for some time inside the room before looking out.

'Well?' said he.

'It cannot be,' she answered. 'I cannot ruin you. But the day after you
are five-and-twenty our marriage shall be confirmed, if you choose.'

'O, my Viviette, how is this!' he cried.

'Swithin, I have not altered. But I feared for my powers, and could not
tell you whilst I stood by your side. I ought not to have given way as I
did to-night. Take the bequest, and go. You are too young--to be
fettered--I should have thought of it! Do not communicate with me for at
least a year: it is imperative. Do not tell me your plans. If we part,
we do part. I have vowed a vow not to further obstruct the course you
had decided on before you knew me and my puling ways; and by Heaven's
help I'll keep that vow. . . . Now go. These are the parting words of
your own Viviette!'

Swithin, who was stable as a giant in all that appertained to nature and
life outside humanity, was a mere pupil in domestic matters. He was
quite awed by her firmness, and looked vacantly at her for a time, till
she closed the window. Then he mechanically turned, and went, as she had
commanded.

XXXVII

A week had passed away. It had been a time of cloudy mental weather to
Swithin and Viviette, but the only noteworthy fact about it was that what
had been planned to happen therein had actually taken place. Swithin had
gone from W