will not think it so.'

'If it grieves you it grieves me,' said Paul; 'you can't have a trouble
that I don't share.'

'I am going away,' she said, walking to the window and looking out on a
shabby back-yard which was full of rotting scenery and old stage-lumber
of all sorts.

'Going away?' Paul repeated.

He was dazed and numbed, as if he had received a blow.

'Yes,' said Claudia. 'Mr. Darco and I have never hit it off very well
together, and now I am going. I have a very good offer for London, and I
leave at the end of next week.'

'But I can put things right with Mr. Darco,' said Paul; 'I know I can.'

'No,' she said, with a seeming gentle sadness; 'it's quite impossible.
My position here has grown intolerable, and, besides that, everything is
arranged; I have signed for London this afternoon.'

Paul said nothing for the time, for the intelligence crushed him.

'I was afraid that you would be hurt,' she added, after a pause. 'I am
glad to see that you can take it more easily than I can.'

'Claudia!' said Paul miserably, and sat staring before him with a white
face.

'I did almost hope,' she said, 'that you would have cared a little.'

'Can't you see?' he answered--' oh, can't you see?'

'I don't want play-acting, Paul,' said Claudia, searching for her
handkerchief, 'After all we have been to each other I expected a little
genuine feeling.'

'Claudia,' he burst out, 'you mustn't go; you mustn't leave me. I should
break my heart without you.'

'I must go, Paul,' said Claudia.

'Then I will go,' cried Paul; 'I can't part from you.'

'How can you go, silly boy?' she answered, suffering him to take her
hand in his and place his arm about her waist; 'you have nothing to do
in London; you know nobody there. You have excellent prospects here with
Darco.'

'Where you go I go,' said the young idiot stanchly. 'I could not live
apart from you. You're the world to me, Claudia.'

He meant it, every word, and in his contradictory heat and flurry and
despair he felt as if there were no words at his call which were strong
enough to express him.

'Oh,' said Claudia, 'it would be sweet to think you cared so much if I
could only believe you.'

'Believe me? cried Paul. 'Oh, Claudia!'

And then he choked, and could say no more.

But Claudia, whose self-possession was less disturbed than his, heard a
footstep on the staircase, and whispered an eager warning to him just
in time. He shot back into his seat, and