He became meditative, and his cigar glow waned and presently vanished altogether. "You are going back?" "By Jove! _Yes._" Melville stirred slightly and then they both sat rigidly quiet for a space. Then abruptly Chatteris flung away his extinct cigar. He seemed to fling many other things away with that dim gesture. "Of course," he said, "I shall go back. "It is not my fault," he insisted, "that this trouble, this separation, has ever arisen. I was moody, I was preoccupied, I know--things had got into my head. But if I'd been left alone.... "I have been forced into this position," he summarised. "You understand," said Melville, "that--though I think matters are indefined and distressing just now--I don't attach blame--anywhere." "You're open-minded," said Chatteris. "That's just your way. And I can imagine how all this upset and discomfort distresses you. You're awfully good to keep so open-minded and not to consider me an utter outcast, an ill-regulated disturber of the order of the world." "It's a distressing state of affairs," said Melville. "But perhaps I understand the forces pulling at you--better than you imagine." "They're very simple, I suppose." "Very." "And yet----?" "Well?" He seemed to hesitate at a dangerous topic. "The other," he said. Melville's silence bade him go on. He plunged from his prepared attitude. "What is it? Why should--this being--come into my life, as she has done, if it _is_ so simple? What is there about her, or me, that has pulled me so astray? She has, you know. Here we are at sixes and sevens! It's not the situation, it's the mental conflict. Why am I pulled about? She has got into my imagination. How? I haven't the remotest idea." "She's beautiful," meditated Melville. "She's beautiful certainly. But so is Miss Glendower." "She's very beautiful. I'm not blind, Chatteris. She's beautiful in a different way." "Yes, but that's only the name for the effect. _Why_ is she very beautiful?" Melville shrugged his shoulders. "She's not beautiful to every one." "You mean?" "Bunting keeps calm." "Oh--_he_----!" "And other people don't seem to see it--as I do." "Some people seem to see no beauty at all, as we do. With emotion, that is." "Why do we?" "We see--finer."