"But, whether it is for the best or not," she said, "I don't believe he will go." "My dear," he said, "you speak as if there was a reason." "I think there is a reason," she answered, "and it is a strong one." "What is it?" he asked. "There is some one he is beginning to be fond of," she replied; "_that_ is the reason." He kept his eyes fixed upon her. "Some one he is _beginning_ to be fond of?" he repeated. "I don't know how it will end," she said. "I am sometimes afraid it can only end sadly, but there is some one he would find it hard to leave, I am sure." The professor gradually rose in his chair until he was sitting upright. "I wish," he said, "that you would tell me who it is." "I do not think he would mind your knowing," she answered. "It seems strange you have not seen. It is Agnes Sylvestre." The professor sank back in his chair, and looked at the bed of coals in the grate. "Agnes _Sylvestre_!" he exclaimed; "_Agnes_ Sylvestre!" "Yes," she said; "and in one sense it is very hard on him that it should be Agnes Sylvestre. After all these years, when he has steadily kept himself free from all love affairs, and been so sure that nothing could tempt him, it cannot be easy for him to know that he loves some one who has everything he has not--all the things he feels he never will have. He is very proud and very unrelenting in his statement of his own circumstances, and he won't try to glaze them over when he compares them with hers. He is too poor, she is too rich--even if she loved him." "Even!" said the professor. "Is it your opinion that she does not?" "I do not know," she answered. "It has seemed to me more probable that--that she liked Colonel Tredennis." "I thought so," said the professor. "I must confess that I thought so; though, perhaps, that may have been because my feeling for him is so strong, and I have seen that he"-- "That he was fond of her?" Bertha put in as he paused to reflect. "I thought so," he said again. "I thought I was sure of it. He sees her often; he thinks of her frequently, it is plain; he speaks of her to me; he sees every charm and grace in her. I have never heard him speak of any other woman so." "It would be a very suitable marriage," said Bertha; "I have felt that from the first. There is no one more beautiful than Agnes--no one sweeter--no one more fit"-- She pushed her seat back from the hearth and rose from it. "The fire is too warm," she said. "I have been sitting before it too long." There was some ice-water upon a side table and she went to it and poured out a glass, and drank it slowly. Then she took a seat by the centre-table and spoke again, as she idly turned over the leaves of a magazine without looking at it. "When first Agnes came here," she said, "I thought of it. I remember that when I presented Philip to her I watched to see if she impressed him as she does most people."