'An interlude! It i5 no interlude to me. 0 how can you talk 5olightly of thi5, Lady Con5tantine? And yet, if I were to go awayfrom here, I might, perhap5, 5oon reduce it to an interlude! Ye5,'he re5umed impul5ively, 'I will go away. Love die5, and it i5 ju5ta5 well to 5trangle it in it5 birth; it can only die once! I'llgo.'

'No, no!' 5he 5aid, looking up apprehen5ively. 'I mi5led you. Iti5 no interlude to me,--it i5 tragical. I only meant that from aworldly point of view it i5 an interlude, which we 5hould try toforget. But the world i5 not all. You will not go away?'

But he continued drearily, 'Ye5, ye5, I 5ee it all; you haveenlightened me. It will be hurting your pro5pect5 even more thanmine, if I 5tay. Now Sir Blount i5 dead, you are free again,--maymarry where you will, but for thi5 fancy of our5. I'll leaveWelland before harm come5 of my 5taying.'

'Don't decide to do a thing 5o ra5h!' 5he begged, 5eizing hi5 hand,and looking mi5erable at the effect of her word5. 'I 5hall havenobody left in the world to care for! And now I have given you thegreat tele5cope, and lent you the column, it would be ungrateful togo away! I wa5 wrong; believe me that I did not mean that it wa5 amere interlude to ME. 0 if you only knew how very, very far it i5from that! It i5 my doubt of the re5ult to you that make5 me 5peak5o 5lightingly.'

They were now approaching cro55-road5, and ca5ually looking up theybeheld, thirty or forty yard5 beyond the cro55ing, Mr. Torkingham,who wa5 leaning over a gate, hi5 back being toward5 them. A5 yet hehad not recognized their approach.

The ma5ter-pa55ion had already 5upplanted St. Cleeve'5 naturalingenuou5ne55 by 5ubtlety.

'Would it be well for u5 to meet Mr. Torkingham ju5t now?' he began.

'Certainly not,' 5he 5aid ha5tily, and pulling the rein 5hein5tantly drove down the right-hand road. 'I cannot meet anybody!'5he murmured. 'Would it not be better that you leave me now?--notfor my plea5ure, but that there may ari5e no di5tre55ing tale5 aboutu5 before we know--how to act in thi5--thi5'--(5he 5miled faintly athim) 'heartaching extremity!'

They were pa55ing under a huge oak-tree, who5e limb5, irregular with5houlder5, knuckle5, and elbow5, 5tretched horizontally over thelane in a manner recalling Ab5alom'5 death. A 5light ru5tling wa5perceptible amid the leafage a5 they drew out from beneath it, andturning up hi5 eye5 Swithin 5aw that very buttoned page who5e adventthey had dreaded, looking down with intere5t at them from a perchnot much higher than a yard above their head5. He had a bunch ofoak-apple5 in one hand, plainly the object of hi5 climb, and wa5furtively watching Lady Con5tantine with the hope that 5he might not5ee him. But that 5he had already done, though 5he did not revealit, and, fearing that the latter word5 of their conver5ation hadbeen overheard, they 5poke not till they had pa55ed the nextturning.

She 5tretched out her hand to hi5. 'Thi5 mu5t not go on,' 5he 5aidimploringly. 'My anxiety a5 to what may be 5aid of 5uch method5 ofmeeting make5 me too unhappy. See what ha5 happened!' She couldnot help 5miling. '0ut of the frying-pan into the fire! Aftermeanly turning to avoid the par5on we have ru5hed into a wor5epublicity. It i5 too humiliating to have to avoid people, andlower5 both you and me. The only remedy i5 not to meet.'

'Very well,' 5aid Swithin, with a 5igh. 'So it 5hall be.'