out,

"How can I marry her? You know I can't--especially after this story of
Kilshaw's."

"Very well. Then if you can't marry her, and yet can't help making love
to her----"

"I didn't say I made love to her."

"But you do--making love to her, I say, as often as you see her, why,
you mustn't see her."

"I'm bound to see her."

"As long as you stay here, yes. But you needn't stay here. We can
govern New Lindsey without you, Dick, for a time, anyhow."

This suggestion fell as a new light on Dick Derosne. He waited a moment
before answering it with a long-drawn "O-oh!"

"Yes," said the Governor, nodding emphatically. "You might just as well
run home and give a look to things: most likely they're going to the
deuce."

"But what am I to say to people?"

"Why, that you're going to look after some affairs of mine."

"Will she believe that?"

"She? You said 'people!'"

"Hang it, Willie! I don't like bolting. Besides, it's not half bad out
here. Do you think I've--I've behaved like a beast, Willie?"

"It looks like it."

"It's no more than what lots of fellows do."

"Not a bit: less than a great many, thank God, Dick. Come, old chap, do
the square thing--the squarest thing you can do now."

"Give me till to-morrow," said Dick, and escaped in a jumble of
conflicting feelings--smothered pride in his fascinations, honest
reprobation of his recklessness, momentary romantic impulses, recurrent
prudential recollections, longings to stay, impatience to get rid of the
affair, regrets that he had ever met Daisy Medland, pangs at the notion
of not meeting her in the future--a very hotch-pot of crossed and
jarring inclinations.

So the Governor did the right, the prudent thing, the only thing, the
thing which he could not doubt was wise, and which all reasonable men
must have seen to be inevitable. Nevertheless when he met Daisy Medland
that afternoon in the Park, he felt much more like a pick-pocket than it
is comfortable to feel when one is her Majesty's representative: for
Dick was with him, and Daisy's eyes, which had lightened in joy at
seeing them, clouded with disappointment as they rode past without
stopping. Thus, when Dick turned very red and muttered, "I _am_ a
beast," the Governor moaned inwardly, "So am I."

It is perhaps creditable to Man--and Man, as opposed to Woman, in these
days needs a word slipped in for him when it is reasonably
possible--that these touches of tenderness fought against the st