Could she accept such a sacrifice? Could she spoil his life for him, when she had only meant to set it straight, and had asked for no greater privilege? Would that she had been able, by some miracle, to help him from across the old impassable distance without coming into his life at all! It was for her to choose--to keep him and all that the future with him might hold, or to tell him frankly that she thought it best to set him free and return to the simple paths of her old existence. But, ah, no, she could not give him up--she could not give him up! She had possessed his lips, she had possessed his thought and solicitude. The echoes of his voice caressed her. Break with him! She shut her eyes and shuddered again; her whole soul grew sick, and she writhed in agony. XXI Calling one day and finding her alone in the drawing-room, Mr. Shanner, after some moments of unruffled demeanour and honeyed conversation, abruptly launched into a piteous outbreak. "I tell you, Alice, you've made a fine mistake with that swell of yours," he exclaimed, his eyes flashing with resentment. Alice stared at him in deep distress. Ever since the engagement Mr. Shanner had been all decorousness and deference. As he broke now through his ashen shell of propriety, his sedate person seemed to relapse, to stand limp, a trifle greyer, a trifle less well trimmed. "Oh," she gasped at last, "you are under some misapprehension." "Come, come, Alice," he said; "don't you suppose I've two eyes--and wide-open ones, too?" "I don't really understand what you're alluding to, Mr. Shanner," she returned as coldly as she could find it in her. "I am alluding to your engagement, of course," he insisted. His tone showed he was determined to force the subject on her. "What do you suppose the fellow is going to marry you for? Men of his class do not come out of their way to look for a wife amongst people of our class. You mustn't mind my not mincing words, but it's clear to me he doesn't care a fig about you, and that your money is the attraction. There, that's plain!" Alice felt herself turn scarlet. Mr. Shanner suddenly stood revealed to her--of roughness and coarseness unendurable. "I don't understand you," she exclaimed, feeling she was floundering, and with an acute sense of her lack of social skill to meet the contingency and cut short the interview. "Oh, yes you do, Alice. Only you are too proud to say so." "You are mistaken. My intended husband and I are on the best of terms. I am very much surprised to hear this from you." "You mean that for a snubbing, no doubt. Well, I suppose I brought it on myself." He smiled uneasily and bit his lip. "Only I did think that, being so old a friend of the family, I had the right to give you a word of advice when the happiness of your life is at stake." "Oh! please, Mr. Shanner--I'm very sorry," she breathed, all gasps and palpitations. "But really, truly, you're mistaken."