She understood the letter perfectly—­what it offered, and what it tacitly refused.  An intimate and exciting friendship—­for two years.  For two years he was ready to fill up such time as he could spare from his clandestine correspondence with her cousin, with this romantic, interesting, but unprofitable affection.  And then?

She fell again upon his letter.  Ah, but there was a new note in it—­a hard, strained note, which gave her a kind of desperate joy.  It seemed to her that for months she had been covetously listening for it in vain.

She was beginning to be necessary to him; he had suffered—­through her.  Never before could she say that to herself.  Pleasure she had given him, but not pain; and it is pain that is the test and consecration of—­

Of what?...  Well, now for her answer.  It was short.

“I am very sorry you thought me rude.  I was tired with talking and unpacking, and with literary work—­housework, too, if the truth were known.  I am no longer a fine lady, and must slave for myself.  The thought, also, of an interview with Lord Lackington which faced me, which I went through as soon as you, Dr. Meredith, and Mr. Delafield had gone, unnerved me.  You were good to write to me, and I am grateful indeed.  As to your appointment, and your career, you owe no one anything.  Everything is in your own hands.  I rejoice in your good fortune, and I beg that you will let no false ideas with regard to me trouble your mind.

     “This afternoon at five, if you can forgive me, you will find
     me.  In the early afternoon I shall be in the British Museum,
     for my work’s sake.”

She posted her letter, and went about her daily housework, oppressed the while by a mental and moral nausea.  As she washed and tidied and dusted, a true housewife’s love growing up in her for the little house and its charming, old-world appointments—­a sort of mute relation between her and it, as though it accepted her for mistress, and she on her side vowed it a delicate and prudent care—­she thought how she could have delighted in this life which had opened upon her had it come to her a year ago.  The tasks set her by Meredith were congenial and within her power.  Her independence gave her the keenest pleasure.  The effort and conquests of the intellect—­she had the mind to love them, to desire them; and the way to them was unbarred.

What plucked her back?

A tear fell upon the old china cup that she was dusting.  A sort of maternal element had entered into her affection for Warkworth during the winter.  She had upheld him and fought for him.  And now, like a mother, she could not tear the unworthy object from her heart, though all the folly of their pseudo-friendship and her secret hopes lay bare before her.

* * * * *

Warkworth came at five.

He entered in the dusk; a little pale, with his graceful head thrown back, and that half-startled, timid look in his wide, blue eyes—­that misleading look—­which made him the boy still, when he chose.