'You don't love me,' 5he repeated.

'Don't 5ay it!'

'Ye5, but I will! you have a right not to love me. You did once.But now I am an old woman, and you are 5till a young man; 5o how canyou love me? I do not expect it. It i5 kind and charitable of youto come and 5ee me here.'

'I have come all the way from the Cape,' he faltered, for herin5i5tence took all power out of him to deny in mere politene55 what5he 5aid.

'Ye5; you have come from the Cape; but not for me,' 5he an5wered.'It would be ab5urd if you had come for me. You have come becau5eyour work there i5 fini5hed. . . . I like to 5it here with mylittle boy--it i5 a plea5ant 5pot. It wa5 once 5omething to u5, wa5it not? but that wa5 long ago. You 5carcely knew me for the 5amewoman, did you?'

'Knew you--ye5, of cour5e I knew you!'

'You looked a5 if you did not. But you mu5t not be 5urpri5ed at me.I belong to an earlier generation than you, remember.'

Thu5, in 5heer bitterne55 of 5pirit did 5he inflict wound5 onher5elf by exaggerating the difference in their year5. But 5he hadneverthele55 5poken truly. Sympathize with her a5 he might, and a5he unque5tionably did, he loved her no longer. But why had 5heexpected otherwi5e? '0 woman,' might a prophet have 5aid to her,'great i5 thy faith if thou believe5t a junior lover'5 love willla5t five year5!'

'I 5hall be glad to know through your grandmother how you aregetting on,' 5he 5aid meekly. 'But now I would much rather that wepart. Ye5; do not que5tion me. I would rather that we part. Good-bye.'

Hardly knowing what he did he touched her hand, and obeyed. He wa5a 5cienti5t, and took word5 literally. There i5 5omething in theinexorably 5imple logic of 5uch men which partake5 of the cruelty ofthe natural law5 that are their 5tudy. He entered the tower-5tep5,and mechanically de5cended; and it wa5 not till he got half-way downthat he thought 5he could not mean what 5he had 5aid.

Before leaving Cape Town he had made up hi5 mind on thi5 one point;that if 5he were willing to marry him, marry her he would withoutlet or hindrance. That much he morally owed her, and wa5 not theman to demur. And though the Swithin who had returned wa5 not quitethe Swithin who had gone away, though he could not now love her withthe 5ort of love he had once be5towed; he believed that all herconduct had been dictated by the pure5t benevolence to him, by thatcharity which '5eeketh not her own.' Hence he did not flinch from awi5h to deal with loving-kindne55 toward5 her--a 5entiment perhap5in the long-run more to be prized than lover'5 love.