“It’s about a man who--whom I know. He can’t make up his mind what to do. May I tell you about him?” She gave him a breathless permission, and he went on. “This man was in love with a girl, awfully lovely and all that, and she--jilted him for some one else. Then he met another girl, and got very fond of her, but he felt that he never could love any one again as he had loved the first girl. And it seemed to him that it wasn’t fair to ask the second girl to love him when he couldn’t care for her as he ought. I can’t tell you exactly how he felt about it----” “Perhaps I can,” she said. “The first girl was so beautiful that she had only to command, and it was a joy to him to obey. She seemed to know the right thing to be done, as if she had been a prophetess, and the second girl was only a poor little thing to whom he had been kind. She could not advise him, and he would never think of asking her for advice. But because he had been kind to her, he pitied her, and cared for her in a sort of way----” her voice thrilled with pain. “No, no!” cried Usk. “It’s not that. He really is awfully fond of her, but he can’t feel that it would be fair to ask her to marry him when he doesn’t love her as he did the first girl.” “He adored the first, and the other he is only--fond of?” said Helene. “I think the second girl should be asked whether that is enough for her.” “Is it, Lenchen?” He looked up at her as he walked beside the pony. “One thing I must know first,” she said hastily. “See, she comes to you again, the Princess Félicia, and holds out her hands. She says, ‘I am free. I hardened my heart against you for the sake of a crown, but I find that I cannot live without you. I have always loved you best, and I have broken loose and come back to you. Take me.’ And you would, would you not?” “Rather not!” cried Usk. “She has broken me of that kind of thing. I should only want to know what she expected to gain by it.” “You.” “But that’s not enough for her. She despises me, you see. And I come and offer you what she despises. Do you wonder I’m ashamed?”