‘Mr. Mallory!’ he echoed drearily. ‘Adrienne, I see what you are going to say, but think again! I must have been a terrible, conceited fool all this time; but will you not think again? Wait till to-morrow. Don’t speak to-day. Let me explain.’ Adrienne’s face was full of pain as she said, tremulously but decisively, ‘No. It would be wrong. I know what I feel, and must always feel, now. I admire you very much; I respect you, oh, more than I can tell you. I have a sort of affection for you. Indeed, I am very fond of you. You were so good to me,’ said Adrienne, with tears swimming in her eyes; ‘but I cannot marry you.... Oh, do not look like that!’ she exclaimed, in an agony, ‘I am so sorry; I am so sorry.’ ‘Are you quite certain?’ he asked in a low voice. ‘Have I all along been so utterly indifferent to the woman I----’ ‘Not indifferent. You were never indifferent to me. And once----’ ‘Once!’ he echoed eagerly. ‘I thought--I believed----’ ‘That you could love me--perhaps that you did love me?’ She bowed. ‘Ah, that was when I was away. But why should you not love me now, dearest? If you would only let me show you how I love you--you must--you could not help--so good and so loving as you are.’ ‘No, no! Do not speak to me of it. _It can never be._ I know my own heart now--too well,’ she said, looking at him almost appealingly, and with distracted, troubled eyes. ‘And there is no love in it for me?’ ‘Not that kind of love. Oh, heavens! why must I have such things to say to _you_! You must know that you ought to have a very different kind of wife from me. Your wife should be rich and beautiful, and quite different. You will see it yourself some day, when you meet a woman worthy of you, who will love you as you deserve to be loved.’ ‘That is cold comfort when the woman I worship won’t have me. I cannot make you love me.’ ‘Only because another man has all the love I have to give,’ said Adrienne, scarcely audibly, as she turned aside her face. Sebastian stood still for a moment. ‘Forgive me!’ said he; ‘it is hopeless, I see. I will never speak to you of it again.’ ‘Forgive _me_!’ she said, much moved. ‘I ought--no, I could not tell you. I have been distracted.... I----’ ‘Do not reproach yourself,’ said he, chivalrously. ‘I understand. After this’ (they had begun to move towards the farther gate of the park, along the broad terrace where the man was sitting on the seat in the trees)--‘after this I have not another word to say. We shall have to meet as before, Adrienne. May I call you Adrienne sometimes?’ ‘Always, if you like.’ ‘Will you try to overlook this--to treat me as if I had not annoyed you thus?’ ‘Annoyed me--_you_! Oh, how can you ask?’ ‘And then slander will be silenced, and then there will be no more misunderstandings. All will be clear between us.’ The tenderness he felt he could not banish from his voice, and hers trembled as she answered. ‘Quite clear--as it should be.’