The brilliant woman, ignorant of his meaning, but comprehending only that he deemed her inconstant and unworthy, stood with tears in her eyes--tears which sprang partly from sorrow, partly from offence. She knew within herself that she was heartless and wrong; but, none the less, she felt herself aggrieved. "Claudia," he said at last, looking straight at her, "our mutual protestations of love ended long ago. We have been friends--close friends; but as for love, well, when a woman really loves a man she does not bestow her smiles upon a score of other admirers." "Ah! you reproach me for being smart," she cried. "I am a woman, and may surely be forgiven any little _caprices de coeur_." He shrugged his shoulders. "Your attachment to me was one of your caprices, Claudia." "Then you don't believe that I really have within my heart one atom of real affection for you?" she asked seriously. "Your love for me is dead," he answered gravely. "It died long ago. Since then you have made other conquests, and to-day half London is at your feet. I, Dudley Chisholm, am a man who has had an unwelcome popularity thrust upon him, and it is only in the natural order of things that I should follow in your train. But, as my place in your heart has long ago been usurped, why should we, intimate friends as we are, make a hollow pretence that it still exists?" His voice remained calm and unbroken during his speech, yet there was an accent in it that thrilled through her heart. As she listened, stirred at heart by a strange emotion, her truer nature told her that she had by her caprice and folly fallen in his esteem. She had left the greatness that was pure and lofty for the greatness which was nothing better than tinsel. "Once, Claudia, I loved you. In those days, before your marriage, you were my ideal--my all in all. You wedded Dick, and I--well, I can honestly say that during those two years of your married life I never entered your house. We met, here and there, at various functions, but I avoided you when I could, and never accepted your invitations. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Because I loved you." Her head was bowed; a stifled sob escaped her.