that had preceded it.  ‘You don’t love me?’ she questioned, ‘I’m sure you don’t love me?’ she reiterated; and he asseverated that he loved her until he despised himself.  Then at last, only half satisfied, but wearied out with vexation—­possibly, too, with a movement of pity at the sight of his haggard face—­she consented to leave him.  Only, what was he going to do? she asked suspiciously; write those rubbishing stories of his?  Well, he must promise not to stay up more than half-an-hour at the latest—­only until he had smoked one pipe.

Willoughby promised, as he would have promised anything on earth to secure to himself a half-hour’s peace and solitude.  Esther groped for her slippers, which were kicked off under the table; scratched four or five matches along the box and threw them away before she succeeded in lighting her candle; set it down again to contemplate her tear-swollen reflection in the chimney-glass, and burst out laughing.

‘What a fright I do look, to be sure!’ she remarked complacently, and again thrust her two hands up through her disordered curls.  Then, holding the candle at such an angle that the grease ran over on to the carpet, she gave Willoughby another vehement kiss and trailed out of the room with an ineffectual attempt to close the door behind her.

Willoughby got up to shut it himself, and wondered why it was that Esther never did any one mortal thing efficiently or well.  Good God! how irritable he felt.  It was impossible to write.  He must find an outlet for his impatience, rend or mend something.  He began to straighten the room, but a wave of disgust came over him before the task was fairly commenced.  What was the use?  Tomorrow all would be bad as before.  What was the use of doing anything?  He sat down by the table and leaned his head upon his hands.

* * * * *

The past came back to him in pictures:  his boyhood’s past first of all.  He saw again the old home, every inch of which was familiar to him as his own name; he reconstructed in his thought all the old well-known furniture, and replaced it precisely as it had stood long ago.  He passed again a childish finger over the rough surface of the faded Utrecht velvet chairs, and smelled again the strong fragrance of the white lilac tree, blowing in through the open parlour-window.  He savoured anew the pleasant mental atmosphere produced by the dainty neatness of cultured women, the companionship of a few good pictures, of a few good books.  Yet this home had been broken up years ago, the dear familiar things had been scattered far and wide, never to find themselves under the same roof again; and from those near relatives who still remained to him he lived now hopelessly estranged.