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ate state of mind. But the sense that it was his last chance,
that he loved her and had lost her, that she would think him
a fool whatever he should say, suddenly gave him a lash
and added a deep vibration to his low voice. ‘You’re per-
fectly inscrutable, and that’s what makes me think you’ve
something to hide. I tell you I don’t care a straw for your
cousin, but I don’t mean that I don’t like him. I mean that it
isn’t because I like him that I go away with him. I’d go if he
were an idiot and you should have asked me. If you should
ask me I’d go to Siberia to-morrow. Why do you want me
to leave the place? You must have some reason for that; if
you were as contented as you pretend you are you wouldn’t
care. I’d rather know the truth about you, even if it’s dam-
nable, than have come here for nothing. That isn’t what I
came for. I thought I shouldn’t care. I came because I want-
ed to assure myself that I needn’t think of you any more. I
haven’t thought of anything else, and you’re quite right to
wish me to go away. But if I must go, there’s no harm in my
letting myself out for a single moment, is there? If you’re re-
ally hurt-if he hurts you-nothing I say will hurt you. When
I tell you I love you it’s simply what I came for. I thought it
was for something else; but it was for that. I shouldn’t say
it if I didn’t believe I should never see you again. It’s the
last time-let me pluck a single flower! I’ve no right to say
that, I know; and you’ve no right to listen. But you don’t lis-
ten; you never listen, you’re always thinking of something
else. After this I must go, of course; so I shall at least have a
reason. Your asking me is no reason, not a real one. I can’t
judge by your husband,’ he went on irrelevantly, almost in-

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