The Two Destinies

whispered. 'You will never come here again. Kiss me for the last time.'

My lips had barely touched hers, when she started to her feet and snatched up my hat from the chair on which I had placed it.

'Take your hat,' she said. 'He has come back.'

My duller sense of hearing had discovered nothing. I rose and took my hat to quiet her. At the same moment the door of the room opened suddenly and softly. Mr. Van Brandt came in. I saw in his face that he had some vile motive of his own for trying to take us by surprise, and that the result of the experiment had disappointed him.

'You are not going yet?' he said, speaking to me with his eye on Mrs. Van Brandt. 'I have hurried over my business in the hope of prevailing on you to stay and take lunch with us. Put down your hat, Mr. Germaine. No ceremony!'

'You are very good,' I answered. 'My time is limited to-day. I must beg you and Mrs. Van Brandt to excuse me.'

I took leave of her as I spoke. She turned deadly pale when she shook hands with me at parting. Had she any open brutality to dread from Van Brandt as soon as my back was turned? The bare suspicion of it made my blood boil. But I thought of her. In her interests, the wise thing and the merciful thing to do was to conciliate the fellow before I left the house.

'I am sorry not to be able to accept your invitation,' I said, as we walked together to the door. 'Perhaps you will give me another chance?'

His eyes twinkled cunningly. 'What do you say to a quiet little dinner here?' he asked. 'A slice of mutton, you know, and a bottle of good wine. Only our three selves, and one old friend of mine to make up four. We will have a rubber of whist in the evening. Mary and you partners—eh? When shall it be? Shall we say the day after to- morrow?'

She had followed us to the door, keeping behind Van Brandt while he was speaking to me. When he mentioned the 'old friend' and the 'rubber of whist,' her face expressed the strongest emotions of shame and disgust. The next moment (when she had heard him fix the date of the dinner for 'the day after to-morrow') her features became composed again, as if a sudden sense of relief had come to her. What did the change mean? 'To-morrow' was the day she had appointed for seeing my mother. Did she really believe, when I had heard what passed at the interview, that I should never enter the house again, and never attempt to see her more? And was this the secret of her composure when she heard the date of the dinner appointed for 'the day after to-morrow'?

Asking myself these questions, I accepted my invitation, and left the house with a heavy heart. That farewell kiss, that sudden composure when the day of the dinner was fixed, weighed on my spirits. I would have given twelve years of my life to have annihilated the next twelve hours.

In this frame of mind I reached home, and presented myself in my mother's sitting-room.

'You have gone out earlier than usual to-day,' she said. 'Did the fine weather tempt you, my dear?' She paused, and looked at me more closely. 'George!' she exclaimed, 'what has happened to you? Where have you been?'

I told her the truth as honestly as I have told it here.

The color deepened in my mother's face. She looked at me, and spoke to me with a severity which was rare indeed in my experience of her.

'Must I remind you, for the first time in your life, of what is due to your mother?' she asked. 'Is it possible that you expect me to visit a woman, who, by her own confession—'

'I expect you to visit a woman who has only to say the word and to be your daughter-in-law,' I interposed. 'Surely I am not asking what is unworthy of you, if I ask that?'

My mother looked at me in blank dismay.

'Do you mean, George, that you have offered her marriage?'

'Yes.'

'And she has said No?'

'She has said No, because there is some obstacle in her way. I have tried vainly to make her explain herself. She has promised to confide everything to you.'

The serious nature of the emergency had its effect. My mother yielded. She handed me the little ivory tablets on which she was accustomed to record her engagements. 'Write down the name and address,' she said resignedly.

'I will go with you,' I answered, 'and wait in the carriage at the door. I want to hear what has passed between you and Mrs. Van Brandt the instant you have left her.'

'Is it as serious as that, George?'

'Yes, mother, it is as serious as that.'

CHAPTER XV. THE OBSTACLE BEATS ME.

HOW long was I left alone in the carriage at the door of Mrs. Van Brandt's lodgings? Judging by my sensations, I waited half a life-time. Judging by my watch, I waited half an hour.

When my mother returned to me, the hope which I had entertained of a happy result from her interview with Mrs. Van Brandt was a hope abandoned before she had opened her lips. I saw, in her face, that an obstacle which was beyond my power of removal did indeed stand between me and the dearest wish of my life.

'Tell me the worst,' I said, as we drove away from the house, 'and tell it at once.'

'I must tell it to you, George,' my mother answered, sadly, 'as she told it to me. She begged me herself to do that. 'We must disappoint him,' she said, 'but pray let it be done as gently as possible.' Beginning in those words, she confided to me the painful story which you know already—the story of her marriage. From that she passed to her meeting with you at Edinburgh, and to the circumstances which have led her to live as she is living now. This