direction that it did not long detain her thoughts, and she found herself pondering more on the disclosure Eugene had made of Stafford’s feelings than on his revelation of his own.  It is difficult, without the aid of subtle distinctions, to say exactly what degree of surprise she felt at the news.  She must, no doubt, have seen that Stafford was greatly attracted to her, and probably she would have felt that the description of his state of mind as that of a man in love only erred to the extent that a general description must err when applied to a particular case.  But she was both surprised and disturbed at hearing that Stafford intended to act upon his feelings, and the very fact of her power having overcome him did him evil service in her thoughts.  The secret of his charm for her lay exactly in the attitude of renunciation that he was now abandoning.  She had been half inclined to fall in love with him just because there was no question of his falling in love with her.  Her feelings toward Eugene, which lay deeper than she confessed, had prevented her actually losing her heart, or doing more than contemplate the picture of her romantic passion, banned by all manner of awful sanctions, as a not uninteresting possibility.  By abandoning his position Stafford abandoned one great source of strength.  On the other hand, he no doubt gained something.  Claudia was not insensible to that aspect of the case which Ayre had apprehended would influence her so powerfully.  She did perceive the halo of romance; and the idea of an Ajax defying heavenly lightning for her sake had its attractiveness.  But Ayre reasoning, as a man is prone and perhaps obliged to do, from himself to another, had omitted to take account of a factor in Claudia’s mind about the existence of which, even if it had been suggested to him, he would have been profoundly skeptical.  Ayre had never been able, or at least never given himself the trouble, to understand how real a thing Stafford’s vow had been to him, and what a struggle was necessary before he could disregard it.  He would have been still more at a loss to appreciate the force which the same vow exercised over Claudia.  Stafford himself had strengthened this feeling in her.  Although the subject of celibacy, and celibacy by oath, had not been discussed openly between them, yet in their numerous conversations Stafford had not failed to respond to her sympathetic invitations so far as to give himself full liberty in descanting on the excellences of the life he had chosen for himself.  Every word he had spoken in its praise now rose to condemn its betrayal.  And Claudia, who had been brought up in entire removal from the spirit which made Ayre and Eugene treat Stafford’s vow as one of the picturesque indiscretions of devotion, was unable to look upon the breaking of it in any other light than that of a falsehood and an act of treachery.  Religion was to her a series of definite commands, and although her temperament was not such