‘Why, Lewis, where are you taking me to?’ asked Maud, pausing at length and looking back. ‘See what a long way we have wandered!’ ‘Yes, and see how nice and cool it is here!’ returned Lewis. ‘I’m sure you like it better than all that heat and glare. There’s such a pretty little grotto down here by the water. You’d better come and see it, now you are so near.’ ‘Oh yes, I’ll come. It’s a pretty sort of place. It’s been a nice party, hasn’t it, Lewis?’ ‘I hate tennis-parties!’ answered he, with needless emphasis. ‘Then why did you come?’ ‘I came to see you.’ ‘To see me!’ Maud looked at him and laughed. ‘That’s good! As if you didn’t see me nearly every day of your life!’ ‘I never seem to see you alone now for a moment,’ returned Lewis discontentedly. ‘You always have a crowd of people round you, or that everlasting Philip. I never can get in a word edgeways!’ Maud looked at him, and patted his arm gently with her delicately gloved hand. ‘Now don’t be silly and tiresome, Lewis. You know you haven’t any real grievance. Is this the grotto? It is very pretty. Shall we sit down here a little while? Now you can talk to your heart’s content.’ They did sit down, but at the same time Lewis did not seem to have very much to say. He looked at Maud, and looked at the trickling water, and held his peace. He had got the chance he wanted, but he did not seem to know how to use it. Maud, too, was silent—and if not embarrassed, at any rate less ready than usual to chatter to him. She sat with a look of gravity stamped upon her face, which deepened as moments went by. ‘Well, Maud,’ said Lewis, looking up at length, ‘I suppose we are both of us thinking about the same subject.’ ‘I dare say we are,’ answered the girl slowly. ‘I suppose it is time we came to some understanding, Lewis.’ It was not a very promising opening, and Lewis was aware of it. ‘Well, Maud,’ he said with a sigh, ‘you know I have loved you all these years, and wanted to make you my wife. The question is, will you have me?’ Had Maud’s feelings been in any way likely to warm towards him, such a beginning would have been fatal; but as it was, it did not affect the point at issue, because her mind was already made up. ‘No, Lewis; I’m afraid I can’t, after all,’ she said slowly. ‘I do like you, and we’ve been very good friends always, and I’ve tried to make up my mind to it. I’ve looked at the matter every way, and considered everything, and I’m sure it would be best for us not to marry.’ Lewis sat looking gloomily at his boots. ‘Aren’t you fond of me, Maud, after the way we have held together all these years?’ ‘Yes, Lewis, I am fond of you, and you are fond of me; but I don’t love you, and what’s more, you don’t love me—not in the way you think you do. I am sure we should not be really happy together, so you had better take the money, and leave me alone.’ ‘I don’t want the money—I want you. It’s a beastly shame the money ever was left like that.’