Exactly," he repeated, "as you desire." He ought to have gone at once.

There was nothing more to say.

Yet he lingered, holding the letters in his hand.
"To write these letters," he said, "has been for a long time one of my greatest pleasures, partly because I felt that I was writing to a friend, and so wrote in full trust and confidence; partly because they procured me a reply--in the shape of your letters.

Must I take back these letters of mine ?" She made no answer.
"It is hard, is it not, to lose a friend so slowly acquired, thus suddenly and unexpectedly ?" "Yes," she said, "it is hard.

I am very sorry.