ea, please."

He held out his cup. She filled it, talking while she did so. She had
become absorbed in what she was saying, and spoke without any
self-consciousness.

"I knew my gift, such as it is, the gift of brains, could do something
for him, though his gift of beauty could do nothing for me--in the way of
development. And that, too, seemed to lead me a step towards him.
Finally--well, one day I knew I wanted to marry him. And so, Emile, I'm
going to marry him. Here!"

She held out to him his cup full of tea.

"There's no sugar," he said.

"Oh--the first time I've forgotten."

"Yes."

The tone of his voice made her look up at him quickly and exclaim:

"No, it won't make any difference!"

"But it has. You've forgotten for the first time. Cursed be the egotism
of man."

He sat down in an arm-chair on the other side of the tea-table.

"It ought to make a difference. Maurice Delarey, if he is a man--and if
you are going to marry him he must be--will not allow you to be the
Egeria of a fellow who has shocked even Paris by telling it the naked
truth."

"Yes, he will. I shall drop no friendship for him, and he knows it.
There is not one that is not honest and innocent. Thank God I can say
that. If you care for it, Emile, we can both add to the size of the
letter bundles."

He looked at her meditatively, even rather sadly.

"You are capable of everything in the way of friendship, I believe," he
said. "Even of making the bundle bigger with a husband's consent. A
husband's--I suppose the little Townly's upset? But she always is."

"When you're there. You don't know Evelyn. You never will. She's at her
worst with you because you terrify her. Your talent frightens her, but
your appearance frightens her even more."

"I am as God made me."

"With the help of the barber. It's your beard as much as anything else."

"What does she say of this affair? What do all your innumerable adorers
say?"

"What should they say? Why should anybody be surprised? It's surely the
most natural thing in the world for a woman, even a very plain woman, to
marry. I have always heard that marriage is woman's destiny, and though I
don't altogether believe that, still I see no special reason why I should
never marry if I wish to. And I do wish to."

"That's what will surprise the little Townly and the gaping crowd."

"I shall begin to think I've seemed unwomanly all these years."

"No. You're an extraordinary woman who astonish