love for this man who neglected her.  Now she was proud of herself.  Whether it might be accounted as good or ill-fortune that she had ever seen Hugh Stanbury, it must at any rate be right that she should be true to him now that she had seen him, and had loved him.  To know that she loved and that she was not loved again had nearly killed her.  But such was not her lot.  She too had been successful with her quarry, and had struck her game, and brought down her dear.  He had been very violent with her, but his violence had at least made the matter clear.  He did love her.  She would be satisfied with that, and would endeavour so to live that that alone should make life happy for her.  How should she get his photograph and a lock of his hair? and when again might she have the pleasure of placing her own hand within his great, rough, violent grasp?  Then she kissed the hand which he had held, and opened the door of her room, at which her sister was now knocking.

‘Nora, dear, will you not come down?’

‘Not yet, Emily.  Very soon I will.’

‘And what has happened, dearest?’

‘There is nothing to tell, Emily.’

‘There must be something to tell.  What did he say to you?’

‘Of course you know what he said.’

‘And what answer did you make?’

‘I told him that it could not be.’

‘And did he take that as final, Nora?’

‘Of course not.  What man ever takes a No as final?’

‘When you said No to Mr Glascock he took it.’

‘That was different, Emily.’

’But how different?  I don’t see the difference, except that if you could have brought yourself to like Mr Glascock, it would have been the greatest thing in the world for you, and for all of them.’

’Would you have me take a man, Emily, that I didn’t care one straw for, merely because he was a lord?  You can’t mean that.’

‘I’m not talking about Mr Glascock now, Nora.’

’Yes, you are.  And what’s the use.  He is gone, and there’s an end of it.’

‘And is Mr Stanbury gone?’

‘Of course.’

‘In the same way?’ asked Mrs Trevelyan.

’How can I tell about his ways?  No; it is not in the same way.  There!  He went in a very different way.’

‘How was it different, Nora?’

’Oh, so different.  I can’t tell you how.  Mr Glascock will never come back again.’

‘And Mr Stanbury will?’ said the elder sister.  Nora made no reply, but after a while nodded her head.  ‘And you want him to come back?’ She paused again, and again nodded her head.  ‘Then you have accepted him?’

’I have not accepted him.  I have refused him.  I have told him that it was impossible.’

‘And yet you wish him back again!’ Nora again nodded her head.  ’That is a state of things I cannot at all understand,’ said Mrs Trevelyan, ’and would not believe unless you told me so yourself.’