"All right," she answered, and looked at him again appealingly. The tears almost welled into his own eyes because of the deep sadness that was in hers. How quick she was to feel his harshness!--he thought. How marvellously sensitive was that little soul of hers to the subtlest gradations of his own mood! What fiendish torture he could put her to, by no more, might be, than the merest upraising of an eyebrow, the faintest change of the voice, the slightest tightening of the lips! She was of mercury, like himself; responsive to every touch of the emotional atmosphere. And was not that the reason why she understood him with such wonderful instinctive intimacy,--was not that the reason why the two of them, out of the whole world, would have sought each other like twin magnets? He led her, in silence, through the litter of mean streets near the station, and thence, beyond the edge of the town, towards the meadows that sloped to the sea. So far it had been a perfect day, but now the sun was half-quenching itself in a fringe of mist that lay along the horizon; and with the change there came a sudden pink light that lit both their faces and shone behind them on the tawdry newness of the town, giving it for once a touch of pitiful loveliness. He took her into a rolling meadow that tapered down into a coppice, and as they reached the trees the last shaft of sunlight died from the sky. Then they plunged into the grey depths, with all the freshly-budded leaves brushing against their faces, and the very earth, so it seemed, murmuring at their approach. Already there was the hint of rain in the air. "It's a long way to come for a few minutes' conversation," he began. She answered, ignoring his remark: "I had a letter from Helen this morning." "_What_!" he exclaimed in sharp fear. He went suddenly white. "A letter," she went on, broodingly. "Would you like to see it?" He stared at her and replied: "I would rather hear from you what it was about." He saw her brown eyes looking up curiously into his, and he had the instant feeling that she would cry if he persisted in his torture of her. The silence of that walk from the station had unnerved her, had made her frightened of him. That was what he had intended. And she did not know yet--did not know what he knew. Poor girl--what a blow was in waiting for her! But he must not let it fall for a little while. She bit her lip and said: "Very well. It was about you. She was unhappy about you. Dreadfully unhappy. She said she was going to leave you. She also said--that she was going to leave you--to--to me." Her voice trembled on that final word. "Well?" She recovered herself to continue with more energy: "And I've come here to tell you this--that if she does leave you, I shan't have you. That's all." "You are making large assumptions."