The girl said no more.  Her mother had told her Desborough’s income, and she knew that to break off the connection would bring about an ugly family quarrel.

On the very next night after this conversation Desborough called as usual, and began the ordinary pleasant and trifling gossip with which the simple people passed the evenings.  Towards nine o’clock the mother rose.

“I shall have to leave you for about half an hour,” she said, and the girl at once knew that that half hour was meant for decision.  A few awkward minutes passed, and then Desborough made up his mind to speak, “I won’t hint, and I won’t spend time in words with you, Marion.  You know all that I could say, and I should only vulgarize love if I talked.”

The girl replied very quietly, “Well, we will take that as understood,” and gave him her hand.

She liked him at that moment.

Everybody in the town had known what was coming, and the engagement was taken as a matter of course.

When things had gone too far to allow of drawing back, Miss Blanchflower set herself to act a part.  She did not really care for the man to whom she was engaged.  In her heart she despised him a little, yet her artistic instinct allowed her to play at being in love, and she carried the comedy through with dexterity.  The unequal companionship grew closer and closer, and Desborough was drawn deeper and deeper into forgetting himself, and forgetting all finer ambitions.  He only sought to please the creature to whom he was slave, and the recognition which the girl now gave him made his happiness too deep for words.

But all the time Miss Blanchflower was weary.  She cared for gaiety, and Desborough’s mind was of a sombre cast; her artistic temperament made her sensuous, and Desborough’s reserve was almost forbidding.  He never spoke out, and the girl, who was always longing for violence of sentiment and sudden changes of emotion, found herself condemned to a dull, level life.  Desborough would talk to her about poetry, but their tastes did not agree.  He would even tease her with futile metaphysical talk until she scarcely knew whether to laugh or to flout him.

Another winter wore on, and the time for the wedding drew near.  It happened that in the Spring a ball was given on the eve of a general election.  A quarter of a mile of carriages stood in front of the Town Hall, and the county gentry mingled on terms of affability with the tradespeople and farmers of the neighbourhood.  Desborough and Miss Blanchflower were there, and the girl was strangely attractive, in spite of her somewhat faulty taste in dress.  She gave Desborough one dance, and spent the rest of the evening in distributing favours.  A quiet conversation passed in one corner of the room which would have interested Miss Blanchflower very much could she have heard.  Two men were standing together.  One was a young fellow of about twenty-five.  He was unspeakably slim, yet he carried himself with an