"Leave Bertie here, papa," said she. "He knows nothing about heraldry."
And, at the same time, to comfort Frank, who dared not betray his jealousy, she added lightly, with a mollifying twinkle of her long eyelashes:
"Frank will trust us alone together, I dare say!"
Her voice was so simple, her glance so loving, that Frank smiled and nodded trustfully, though annoyed at seeing Bertie sit down again.
As soon as they were alone Bertie began:
"For shame, Eva, how could you torment me as you have been doing?"
She laughed and blushed, a little ashamed of herself for treating him so to please Frank. But Bertie's face was grave, and with an appealing gesture he folded his hands, and said beseechingly: "Promise me that you will not do so again."
She gazed at him in surprise at his earnest tone:
"It is only my fun," said she.
"But a form of fun which is suffering to me," he replied in a low voice.
And still she looked at him, not understanding. He sat huddled up, his head on his breast, his eyes fixed before him, and his brown hair, which waved a little over his forehead, clinging to his temples, which were damp with perspiration. He was evidently much agitated. He had no idea what might come of this dialogue, but he was aware that his tone had been solemn, that these first words might be the prelude to a very important interview. He felt that these few minutes were destined to become a precious link in the chain of his life, and he waited with the patience of a fatalist for the thoughts which should take shape in his brain, and the words which should rise to his lips. He kept an eye on himself, as it were, and at the same time spun a web about Eva, as a spider entangles a fly in the thread it draws out of its bowels.
"You see," he went on slowly, "I can not bear that you should torment me so. You think less well of me than you used. But if I have little hands, I can not help it."
She could not forbear a smile at the intentionally coquettish tone he had assumed, an affectation of spoiled-childishness which she saw through at once. But she replied, nevertheless:
"Well, I beg your pardon for teasing you. I will not do so again."
He, however, had risen from his chair, and, pretending not to see the hand she held out, he silently went to the window, and stood there, looking out on the park-like greenery of Kensington Gardens, dimmed with mist. She sat still, waiting for him to speak; but he said nothing.
"Are you angry, Bertie?"
Then he slowly turned round. The gray daylight fell through the muslin curtains, and gave a pallid look—a hue of Parian china—to his delicate features. Very gently, with a deep, melancholy smile, he shook his head in negation. And to her romantic fancy the sadness of that smile gave him a poetic interest as of a youthful god or a fallen angel; the celestial softness of a sexless mythological being, such as she had seen in illustrated books of verse; a man in form, a woman in face. She longed to invite him to pour out his woes; and at this moment it would scarcely have surprised her if his speech had sounded like a rhythmical monologue, a long lament in blank verse.
"Bertie, my dear fellow, what is the matter?"
There he stood speechless, in the pale slanting light, knowing that the effect must be almost theatrical. And she, sitting where it was darker, could see that his eyes glistened through tears. Much moved, she went up to him; she took his hand, and made him sit down by her side.
"Speak, Bertie, have I vexed you? Can you not tell me?"
But again he shook his head, with that faint smile. And at last he said huskily:
"No, Eva, I am not vexed. I can be vexed no more. But I am very, very sad because we must so soon part, and I care for you so much—"
"Part! Why? Where are you going?"
"Indeed, I do not myself know that, sweet girl. I shall remain till you are married, and then I must go, to wander hither and thither quite alone. Will you sometimes think of me, I wonder?"
"But why do you not stay in London?"
He looked at her. He had begun this conversation without knowing whither it might lead him, abandoning himself to chance. But now, with this look which her eyes met in response, there suddenly blazed up in him a little diabolical flame. He knew now what he was driving at; he weighed every word he uttered as if they were grains of gold; he felt himself very lucid, very logical and calm, free from the painful, incoherent agitation of the last few minutes. And he spoke very slowly, in a mournful, hollow voice like a sick man:
''In London I No, Eva, I can not remain here."
''Why not?"
"I can not, dear girl. I can not, not with any decency. It is impossible."
The hypocrisy of his eye, the languor
