It took some minutes to compose the message.

‘It’s only to save time by having the box ready,’ he said, as he rose with the bit of paper in his hand.  ’Of course I shall see the statue packed myself and come over with it.’

She saw his face clearly in the light as he came towards her, and there was no mistaking the unaffected satisfaction it expressed.  He held out the telegram for her to read, but she would not take it, and she looked up quietly and earnestly as he stood beside her.

‘Do you remember Delorges?’ she asked.  ’How the lady tossed her glove amongst the lions and bade him fetch it, if he loved her, and how he went in and got it—­and then threw it in her face?  I feel like her.’

Logotheti looked at her blankly.

‘Do you mean to say you won’t take the statue?’ he asked in a disappointed tone.

’No, indeed!  I was taken by surprise when you went to the writing-table.’

’You did not believe I was in earnest?  Don’t you see that I’m disappointed now?’ His voice changed a little.  ’Don’t you understand that if the world were mine I should want to give it all to you?’

’And don’t you understand that the wish may be quite as much to me as the deed?  That sounds commonplace, I know.  I would say it better if I could.’

She folded her hands on her knee, and looked at them thoughtfully while he sat down beside her.

‘You say it well enough,’ he answered after a little pause.  ’The trouble lies there.  The wish is all you will ever take.  I have submitted to that; but if you ever change your mind, please remember that I have not changed mine.  For two years I’ve done everything I can to make you marry me whether you would or not, and you’ve forgiven me for trying to carry you off against your will, and for several other things, but you are no nearer to caring for me ever so little than you were the first day we met.  You “like” me!  That’s the worst of it!’

‘I’m not so sure of that,’ Margaret answered, raising her eyes for a moment and then looking at her hands again.

He turned his head slowly, but there was a startled look in his eyes.

‘Do you feel as if you could hate me a little, for a change?’ he asked.

‘No.’

‘There’s only one other thing,’ he said in a low voice.

‘Perhaps,’ Margaret answered, in an even lower tone than his.  ’I’m not quite sure to-day.’

Logotheti had known her long, and he now resisted the strong impulse to reach out and take the hand she would surely have let him hold in his for a moment.  She was not disappointed because he neither spoke nor moved, nor took any sudden advantage of her rather timid admission, for his silence made her trust him more than any passionate speech or impulsive action could have done.

‘I daresay I am wrong to tell you even that much,’ she went on presently, ’but I do so want to play fair.  I’ve always despised women who cannot make up their minds whether they care for a man or not.  But you have found out my secret; I am two people in one, and there are days when each makes the other dreadfully uncomfortable!  You understand.’