"No. I'm not ready. Yes, I'll come. I shall leave now. I'm not ready, but I'll do anything in the world. Do you sometimes stroll in the garden at home now? Do you ever go out in the evening? I might see you, I might be able to greet you perhaps, nothing more. But if you care for me a little, if you can bear me, if you don't hate me, then say ... let me have that comfort.... Do you know, there is a palm that flowers only once in its lifetime, though it lives seventy years--the talipot palm. But it only flowers once. Now is my flowering time. Yes, I'll get some money and go home. I'll sell what I've written; I'm writing a big book, you know, and I'll sell it now, tomorrow morning, all I have finished. I shall get a lot for it. Do you want me to come home?" "Yes." "Thanks, thanks! Forgive me if I hope too much, believe too much; it is so lovely to believe beyond all bounds. This is the happiest day I have known...." He took his hat off and laid it beside him. Victoria looked about her, a lady was coming down the street and farther off a woman with a basket. Victoria grew uneasy, she took out her watch. "Must you go now?" he asked. "Say something before you go, let me hear your.... I love you and tell you so now. It will depend on your answer whether I ... I am so utterly in your hands. What is your answer?" Pause. He dropped his head. "No, don't say it!" he begged. "Not here," she answered. "When we get there." They walked on. "They say you're going to marry that little girl, that girl whose life you saved; what was her name?" "Camilla, do you mean?" "Camilla Seier. They say you are going to marry her." "Do they? Why do you ask that? She is not grown up. I have been to her home, it is a big, fine house, a castle like your own; I have been there many times. No, she is not grown up." "She is fifteen. I have met her, we have been together. I was much taken with her. How charming she is!" "I am not going to marry her," he said. "Indeed." He looked at her. His face twitched. "But why do you say that now? Is it because you want to call my attention to another?" She went on with rapid steps and did not answer. They found themselves outside the Chamberlain's. She took his hand and drew him into the gateway and up the stairs. "I'm not going in," he said, half surprised. She pressed the bell, then turned to him, and her bosom was heaving. "I love you," she said. "Do you understand? It is you I love." Suddenly she drew him downstairs again, quickly, three or four steps, threw her arms around him and kissed him. She trembled against him. "It is you I love," she said. The hall door opened above. She tore herself from him and hurried up the stairs. IV It was getting on for morning; day dawned, a purple, quivering September morning.