Instead of growing bolder, he seemed to hold aloof, and he fixed each new appointment at a longer interval.

He was gloomy and absent, and she began to feel that her charm was weakening.

She reproached him, and tried to find excuses for him.

Everybody knew what he had lost at the races or over the baccarat-board; and she knew, according to a rhymed saying, that "lucky at love is unlucky at gambling." "It is not that," he answered slowly, with an anxious glance around in the green avenues of trimmed trees.

"I do not know why I should speak of politics to a woman; but you and I are as one: you should know the worst.