e that. Our
engagement must be officially broken off. Colonel Harris has been too
patient as it is."

"Father," she rejoined, "does not wish the engagement broken off."

"All these people," he said, nodding in the direction of the crowd
below, "will expect some sort of announcement."

"Let them."

"Lou, you must take back your word."

"How does one take back one's word, Luke? Have you ever done it? I
shouldn't know how to."

She looked at him straight, her eyes brilliant in the glare of the
electric lamps, not a tear in them or in his, her face immovable, lest
indifferent eyes happened to be turned up to where these two
interesting people sat. Only a quiver round the lips, a sign that
passion palpitated deep down within her heart, below the Bond Street
gown and the diamond collar, the soul within the puppet.

She held his glance, forcing him into mute acknowledgment that his
philosophy, his worldliness, was only veneer, and that he had not
really envisaged the hard possibility of actually losing her.

Oh, these men of this awful conventional world! How cruel they can be
in that proud desire to do what is right!--what their code tells them
is right!--no law of God or nature that!--only convention, the
dictates of other men! Hard on themselves, selfless in abnegation, but
not understanding that the dearest gift they can bestow on a woman is
the right for her to efface herself, the right for her to be the giver
of love, of consolation, of sacrifice.

Commonplace, plain, sensible Louisa understood everything that Luke
felt; those great luminous eyes of hers, tearless yet brilliant, read
every line on that face drilled into impassiveness.

No one else could have guessed the precise moment at which softness
crept into the hard determination of jaw and lips; no ear but hers
could ever have perceived the subtle change in the quivering breath,
from hard obstinacy that drew the nostrils together, and set every
line of the face, to that in-drawing of the heavy air around caused by
passionate longing which hammered at the super-excited brain, and made
the sinews crack in the mighty physical effort at self-repression.

But to all outward appearance perfect calm, correct demeanour, the
attitude and tone of voice prescribed by the usages of this so-called
society.

"Lou," he said, "it is not fair to tempt me. I should be a miserable
cur if I held you to your word. I am a penniless beggar--a wastrel
now, without a profe