"I see," she said tonelessly, moving slowly away from him. "Your feelings have changed. I am sorry." Then he found power of motion and speech. He threw out his arms. "My God, dear, forgive me!" he groaned, and sat down and clutched his head in his hands. She returned to the window and looked out at the rain. And there she fought with her woman's indignant humiliation. And there was a long, dead silence, broken only by the faintly heard notes of Susan's piano in the nursery and the splash of water on the terrace. Presently all that was good in Doria conquered. She crossed the room and laid a light hand on Jaffery's head. It was the finest moment in her life. "One can't help these things. I know it too well. And no hearts are broken. So it's all for the best." He groaned again. "I didn't know. I'd like to shoot myself." She smiled, conscious of feminine superiority. "If you did, I should die, too. I tell you, it's all for the best. I love you as I never loved you before. I usen't to love you a little bit. But I should have had to learn to love you as a wife--and it might have been difficult." A moment afterwards she appeared in the library, serenely matter-of-fact. Liosha started round in her chair and looked defiantly at her rival. "Would both of you mind coming into the drawing-room for a minute?" We followed her. She held the door, which I was about to shut, and left it open. Before Jaffery had time to rise at our entrance, I caught sight of him sitting as she had left him, great clumps of his red hair sticking through his fingers. His face was a picture of woe. I can imagine nothing more like it than that of a conscience smitten lion. Doria ran her arm through mine and kept me near the doorway. "I've asked Jaffery to marry me," she said, in a steady voice, "and he doesn't want to. It's because he loves a much better woman and wants to marry her." Then while Jaffery and Liosha gasped in blank astonishment, she swung me abruptly out of the room and slammed the door behind her. "There," she said, and flung up her little bead, "what do you think of that?" "Magnificent," said I, "but bewildering. Did Jaffery really--?" In a few words, she put me into possession of the bare facts. "I'm not sorry," she added. "Sometimes I love Jaffery--because he's so lovable. Sometimes I hate him--because--oh, well--because of Adrian. You can't understand." "I'm not altogether a fool," said I. "Well, that's how it is. I would have worn myself to death to try to make him happy. You believe me?"