"Were you never afraid," said Bertha, "that they would not fail?" "No. There is nothing so final as the ending of such a feeling. There is nothing to come after it, because it has taken everything with it,--passion, bitterness, sorrow,--even regret. I never wished that it might return after the day I spoke of. I have thought if, by stretching forth my hand, I could have brought it all back just as it was at first, I should not have wished to do it. It had been too much." "It is a false thing," said Bertha,--"a false thing, and there must always be some such end to it." Agnes Sylvestre was silent again, and because of her silence Bertha repeated her words with feverish eagerness. "It must always end so," she said. "_You_ know that--you _must_ know it." "I am only one person," was the characteristic answer. "And I do not know. I do not want to know. I only want quiet now. I have learned enough." "Agnes," said Bertha, "that is very pathetic." "Yes," Agnes answered. "I know it is pathetic, when I allow myself to think of it." And for the first time her voice broke a little, and was all the sweeter for the break in it. But it was over in a moment, and she spoke as she had spoken before. "But I did not mean to be pathetic," she said. "I only wanted to tell you the entire truth, so that there should be nothing between us, and nothing to avoid. There can be nothing now. You know of me all that is past, and you can guess what is to come." "No, I cannot do that," said Bertha. Agnes smiled. "It is very easy," she responded. "I shall have a pretty house, and I shall amuse myself by buying new or old things for it, and by moving the furniture. I shall give so much thought to it that after a while it will be quite celebrated, in a small way, and Miss Jessup will refer to it as 'unique.' Mrs. Merriam will be with me, and I shall have my reception day, and perhaps my 'evening,' and I shall see as many of the charming people who come to Washington as is possible. You will be very good to me, and come to see me often, and--so I hope will Mr. Arbuthnot, and Colonel Tredennis"-- "Agnes," interposed Bertha, with an oddly hard manner, "if they do, one or both of them will fall in love with you." "If it is either," responded Mrs. Sylvestre, serenely, "I hope it will be Mr. Arbuthnot, as he would have less difficulty in recovering." "You think," said Bertha, "that nothing could ever touch you again,--nothing?" "Think!" was the response; "my safety lies in the fact that I do not think of it at all. If I were twenty I might do so, and everything would be different. Life is very short. It is not long enough to run risks in. I shall not trifle with what is left to me." "Oh," cried Bertha, "how calm you are--how calm you are!" "Yes," she answered, "I am calm now." But she put her hands up to her face again for an instant, and her eyelashes were wet when she withdrew them.