"I have often thought about you," he said at last in a jerk. "Do you believe that?" She kept silent, and then made as if to rise. "Do you believe that I have thought about you?" he demanded quickly. "Answer me!" "It is nothing to me whether you have thought or not. I dare say you have been ashamed when you remembered your disgrace--what of it?" "Yes," he said, "I have been ashamed. You were always too good for me; I ought never to have had anything to do with a woman like you." She had not risen; she was still in the position in which he had surprised her; and she was sensible now of a dull pain at the unexpectedness of his conclusion. "Why have you followed me?" she said coldly. "What for?" "What for? I didn't know you were in the town, I hadn't an idea--and I saw you suddenly. I wanted to speak to you." "What is it you want to say?" "Mary!" "Yes; what do you want to say? I'm not your friend; I'm not your acquaintance: what have you got to speak to me about?" "I meant," he stammered--"I wanted to ask you if it was possible that--that you could ever forgive the way I behaved to you." "Is that all?" she asked in a hard voice. "How you have altered!... Yes, I don't know that there's anything else." She did not reply, and he regarded her irresolutely. "Can you?" "No," she said. "Why should I forgive you--because time has gone by? Is that any merit of yours? You treated me brutally, infamously. The most that a woman can do for a man I did for you; the worst that a man can do to a woman you did to me. You meet me accidentally and expect me to forgive? You must be a great deal less worldly-wise than you were three years ago." She turned to him for the first time since he had joined her, and his eyes fell. "I didn't expect," he said; "I only asked. So you're a nurse again, eh?" "Yes." He gave an impatient sigh, the sigh of a man; who realises the discordancy of life and imperfectly resigns himself to it. "We're both what we used to be, and we're both older. Well, I'm the worse off of the two, if that's any consolation to you. A woman's always getting opportunities for new beginnings." She checked the retort that sprang to her lips, eager to glean some knowledge of his affairs, though she could not bring herself to put a question; and after a moment she rejoined indifferently: "You got the chance you were so anxious for. I understood your marriage was all that was necessary to take you to London."