The doubt which had so suddenly presented itself was in some degree the same one which had stirred Edouard.  Was it that he was really unable to express his feelings, or was it that Miss Warriner could not understand them?  Was it really something lacking in him, or was it not something lacking in her?  He flushed at the disloyalty of the thought and put it from him; but, as his memory reached back over the past three months, the question returned again and again with fresh force, and would not be denied.  He called himself a fatuous, conceited fool.  Because he could not make a woman love him other men could do so.  That was really the answer; he was not the man.  But the answer did not seem final.  What, after all, was the thing his love sought—­a woman only, or a woman capable of deep and great feeling?  Even if he could not inspire such emotions, even if another could, he would still be content and proud to love a woman capable of such deep feelings.  But if she were without them?  At the thought, Corbin stared blankly before him as though he had stumbled against a stone wall.  What sign had she ever given him that she could care greatly?  Was not any form of emotion always distasteful to her?  Was not her mind always occupied with abstract questions?  Was she not always engaged in her own self-improvement—­with schemes, it is true, for bettering the world; but did her heart ever ache once for the individual?  What was it, then, he loved?  Something he imagined this girl to be, or was he in love with the fact that his own nature had been so mightily stirred?  Was it not the joy of caring greatly which had carried him along?  And if this was so, was he now to continue to proffer this devotion to one who could not feel, to a statue, to an idol?  Were not the very things which rendered her beautiful the offerings which he himself had hung upon her altar?  Did the qualities he really loved in her exist?  Was he not on the brink of casting his love before one who could neither feel it for him nor for any other man?  He stood up, trembling and frightened.  Even though the girl had rejected him again and again, he felt a hateful sense of disloyalty.  He was ashamed to confess it to himself, and he vowed, hotly, that he must be wrong, that he would not believe.  He would still worship her, fight for her, and force her to care for him.

Mrs. Warriner and her daughter were to sail on the morrow, and that night they met Corbin at dinner for the last time.  After many days—­ although self-accused—­he felt deeply conscious of his recent lack of faith, and, in the few hours still left him, he determined to atone for the temporary halt in his allegiance.  They had never found him more eager, tactful, and considerate than he was that evening.  The eyes of Mrs. Warriner softened as she watched him.  As one day had succeeded another, her admiration and liking for him had increased, until now she felt as though his cause was hers—­as though she was not parting from a friend, but from a son.  But the calmness of her daughter was impenetrable; from her manner it was impossible to learn whether the approaching separation was a relief or a regret.