_Cummings_, musingly.--"She _is_ beautiful, isn't she, with that faint dawn of red in her cheeks,--not a colour, but a coloured light like the light that hangs round a rose-tree's boughs in the early spring! And what a magnificent movement, what a stately grace! The girl must have been a goddess!" _Bartlett._--"And now she's a saint--for sweetness and patience! You think she's had nothing to suffer before from me? You know me better! Well, I am going away." _Cummings._--"Perhaps it will be the best. You can go back with me to-morrow." _Bartlett._--"To-morrow? Go back with you to-morrow? What are you talking about, man?" Cummings smiles. "I can't go to-morrow. I can't leave her hating me." _Cummings._--"I knew you never meant to go. Well, what will you do?" _Bartlett._--"Don't be so cold-blooded! What would _you_ do?" _Cummings._--"I would have it out somehow." _Bartlett._--"Oh, you talk! How?" _Cummings._--"I am not in love with Miss Wyatt." _Bartlett._--"Oh, don't try to play the cynic with me! It doesn't become you. I know I've used you badly at times, Cummings. I behaved abominably in leaving you to take the brunt of meeting General Wyatt that first day; I said so then, and I shall always say it. But I thought you had forgiven that." _Cummings_, with a laugh.--"You make it hard to treat you seriously, Bartlett. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to go to Miss Wyatt and explain your case to her?" _Bartlett_, angrily.--"No!" _Cummings._--"Perhaps to Mrs. Wyatt?" _Bartlett_, infuriate.--"No!" _Cummings._--"To the General?" _Bartlett_, with sudden quiet.--"You had better go away from here, Cummings--while you can." _Cummings._--"I see you don't wish me to do anything, and you're quite right. Nobody _can_ do anything but yourself." _Bartlett._--"And what would you advise me to do?" _Cummings._--"I've told you that I would have it out. You can't make matters worse. You can't go on in this way indefinitely. It's just possible that you might find yourself mistaken,--that Miss Wyatt cares for you in your own proper identity." _Bartlett._--"For shame!" _Cummings._--"Oh, if you like!" _Bartlett_, after a pause.--"Would you--would you see the General?" _Cummings._--"If I wanted to marry the General. Come, Bartlett; don't be ridiculous. You know you don't want my advice, and I haven't any to give. I must go to my room a moment."