For nearly five minutes she let the remark go apparently unnoticed. But the complaint he had made is the one general and comprehensive appeal that no woman ever born can altogether ignore. In the depths of her something always responds, however faintly. And in the soul of this young girl it was answering now--the subtle, occult response of woman to the eternal and endless need of man--hunger of one kind or another. "I'm sorry," she said, so sincerely that the sweetness in her voice startled him. "Why--why, do you know I believe you really are!" he said in grateful surprise. "I am a great many things that you have no idea I am," she said, smiling. "What is one of them?" "I'm afraid I'm a--a fool." She came forward and stood looking at him. "I've been thinking," she said, "that I can do you no kinder service than to destroy those papers and let you go home." For a moment he thought she was joking, then something in her expression changed his opinion and he took a step forward, eyes fixed on her face. "Yes," he said, "it would be the kindest thing you can do for me. Shall I tell you why? It's because I'm hopelessly near-sighted. I wear glasses when I'm alone in my study, where nobody can see me." "What in the world has _that_ to do with my leaving you?" she asked, colouring up. "Suffragettes would never marry a near-sighted man, would they?" "They ought not to." "_You_ wouldn't, would you?" "Why do you ask--such a thing?" "I want to know." "But how does your myopia concern _me_?" she said faintly. "_Couldn't_ it--ever?" he asked, reddening. "No," she said, turning pale. "Then we'd better not stay here; and I'm going to be as generous as you are," he said, advancing toward her. "I'm going to let you go home." She backed away, thrusting the papers behind her; his arm slipped around her, after them, strove to grasp them, to hold and restrain her, but there was a strength in her tall, firm young body which matched his own; she resisted, turned, twisted, confronted him with high colour, and lips compressed, and they came to a deadlock, breathing fast and irregularly. Again, coolly, dexterously, he pitted his adroitness, then his sheer strength against hers; and it came again to a deadlock. Suddenly she crook'd one smooth knee inside of his; her arms slid around him like lightning; he felt himself rising into the air, descending--there came a crash, a magnificent display of ocular fireworks, and nothing further concerned him until he discovered himself lying flat on the floor and heard somebody sobbing incoherencies beside him. He was mean enough to keep his eyes shut while she, on her knees beside him, slopped water on his forehead and begged him to speak to her, and told him her heart was broken and she desired to die and repose in mortuary simplicity beside him forever.