'Well, it is fate!' returned Ellice with a light sigh. Presently she bit her lip, and gave a little laugh. 'How seriously we have been taking things: anybody would suppose that we--meant something. Good-bye, Geoffrey.' 'What do you mean by good-bye?' 'Nothing; only that I am going home, and that you are not to come with me. Oh, you need not look solemn, or angry. But I must go alone, really.' 'What----' 'And I will write to you to-morrow, and tell you why. Good-bye; we must not do more than shake hands on this street corner, with that chemist's shop opposite, and the waggon coming along. Good-bye until to-morrow.' 'This is strange!' was all that Geoffrey could mutter. She went away from him, walking lightly and swiftly, turning her head towards the right or the left occasionally, but never looking back. Presently he saw something fall from her dress and flutter to the ground without her noticing it; and after she had passed out of sight he walked slowly to it, and picked it up. It was a little black bow. Geoffrey pinned it inside his coat. The next day he received the following letter: 'You were quite right, Geoffrey, and I thank you. But I am going to make you hate me and despise me even more than you did then. We shall not marry in three weeks, or ever. It is better so. I suppose I was destined to experience both--the love of the world as well as your love; to try them both, I mean. I daresay I should never have been contented else. I am a strange girl, as I have told you before. It seems to me I have loved you as much as a woman can ever love a man; and if yesterday--never mind, we will forget that. I have not changed either, only that somehow yesterday seems ages away from me. I do not understand myself, and I don't think I want to. Perhaps marriage would not have come up to my ideal of it; and I could not have borne to be disappointed in it--with you. Perhaps I have had the sweetest that love can give. The other cannot be so sweet, I know; but I must try it, too. It is fate! 'ELLICE. 'The person with whom we have been having the lawsuit about the property died last week, and left the property to us, on condition that I married his nephew.' And at the bottom of the page was added: 'Do not hate me always.'