The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and Other Stories

d refracted, as it were, from the blank walls of the surrounding limitations: she had opened windows from which no sky was ever visible. But the idealist subdued to vulgar necess

onsequences; and these had never been more clearly present to her t

an irresistible flight from just such a climax as the present excursion was designed to bring about. But other memories importuned her also; the recollection of similar situations, as skillfully led up to, but through some malice of fortune, or her own unsteadiness of purpose, always failing of the intended result. Well, her purpose was steady enough now. She saw that the whole weary work of rehabilitation must b

tone made free of her, yet telling herself that this momentary endurance of his mood was the price she must pay for her ultimate power over him, she tried to calculate the exact point at which concession must turn to resistance,

above the lake, when she suddenly cut short the culmination of an im

dale," she said quietly; "and I am r

s announcement with a recoil which carried him to his feet, where

"And, though I was unable to consent when you spoke to me in this way before, I a

steady light thrown across the tortuous darkness of the situation. In its inconvenient brightness Roseda

ed cigarette. Selecting one, he paused to contemplate it a moment before saying: "My dear Miss Lily, I'm sorry if there's been a

irst leap of her anger, and said in a tone of gentle dignity: "I have no one

e extended her hand and added, with the faintest inflection of sadness in her voice: "Before we

in Rosedale. It was her exquisite inaccessibleness, the sense of distance she could

t we going to be good friends all the sa

" she returned with a slight smile. "Making love to me without aski

aking love to you-I don't see how any man could; but I don't

hose terms." She turned away, as though to mark that its final term had in fact been reached, and he fo

lsively; but she walked on

iss Lily-don't hurry away like that. You're beastly hard on a fellow; but if you d

drawing away instinctively from his touch,

rejoined, "that you had done so

le plain speaking is going to hurt us. I'm all broken up on you: there's nothing new in that. I'm more in

r of ironic composure. "You mean to say that I

appened. I don't believe the stories about you-I don't WANT to believe them. Bu

the retort on her lip and she continued to face him composedly. "I

I'm certain it don't in real life. You know that as well as I do: if we're speaking the truth, let's speak the whole truth. Last year I was wild to marry you, and you wou

can?" broke fro

that? Why should I mind saying I want to get into society? A man ain't ashamed to say he wants to own a racing stable or a picture gallery. Well, a taste for society's just another kind of hobby. Perhaps I want to get even with some of the people who cold-shouldered me last year-

t for his candour, and after a moment's pause he went on: "There it is, you see. I'm more in love with you than ever, bu

ed. After the tissue of social falsehoods in which she had so long moved

se to you, and now I should be an encumbrance; and I like you for

e!" he exclaimed; and as she began once more to move away, he broke out suddenly-"Miss Lily-stop. You know I don't belie

ick disdain: it was easier to endure

I don't think we need di

him to brush such resistance aside. "I don't want to discuss any

me is that you've waited so long to get square with that woman, when you've had the power in your hands." She continued silent under the rush of astonish

or did the astonishing indelicacy of the reference diminish the likelihood of Rosedale's resorting to it. But now she saw how far short of the mark she had fallen; and the sur

the situation: "You see I know where you stand-I know how completely she's in your power. That sounds like stage-talk, don't it?-but th

bewilderment: her only clear impression reso

dn't go into, did you a beastly bad turn last spring. Everybody knows what Mrs. Dorset is, and her best friends wouldn't believe her on oath where their own interests were concerned; but as long as they're out of the row it's much easier to follow her lead than to set themselves against it, and you've simply been sacrificed to their laziness and selfishness. Isn't that a pretty fair statement of the case?-Well, some people say you've got the neatest kind of an answer in you

r of the idea that held her spell-bound, subdued to his will; it was rather its subtle affinity to her own inmost cravings. He would marry her tomorrow if she could regain Bertha Dorset's friendship; and to induce the open resumption of that friendship, and the tacit retractation of all that had caused its withdrawal, she had only to put to the lady the latent menace contained in the packet so miraculously delivered into her hands. Lily saw in a flash the advantage of this course over that which poor Dorset had pressed upon her. The other plan depended for its success on the infliction of an

ow well enough that Bertha Dorset couldn't have touched you if there hadn't been-well-questions asked before-little points of interrogation, eh? Bound to happen to a good-looking girl with stingy relatives, I suppose; anyhow, they DID happen, and she found the ground prepared for her. Do you see where I'm coming out? You don't want these little questions cropping up again. It's one thing to get Bertha Dorset into line-but what you want is to keep her there. You can frighten her fast enough-but how are you going to keep her frightened? By

consciousness, and it came to her now through the disgusted perception that her would-be accomplice assumed, as a matter of course, the likelihood of her distrusting him and perhaps trying to cheat

oice that was a surprise to her own ears: "You are mistaken-qui

ash in a direction so different from that toward

r murmur of "Ah, we do NOW," he retorted with a sudden burst of violence: "I suppose it's becau