CHAPTER V.
IN LOVE THERE ARE NO GOOD-BYES.
He was so startled that he took a step backward.

She remained with her hand outstretched.
Was that only the result of the eloquent expression of his views--that outstretched hand which was offered to him for an instant only as a symbol of its withdrawal from him forever?
"You cannot mean----" "Good-by," said she.
"Have I not explained all that seemed to you to stand in need of explanation ?" he asked.
"The book--the book remains.

I asked for no explanation," said she.
"But you are too good, too reasonable, to dismiss me in this fashion, Phyllis.

Why, even the bishop--_would sit upon a fence to see how the book would be received by the public before taking action against the author_," was what was in his mind, but he stopped short, and then added a phrase that had no reference to the bishop.

"Can you ever have loved me ?" was the phrase which he thought should appeal to her more forcibly than any reference to the bishop's sense of what was opportune.
She took back her hand, and her eyes fell at the same moment that her face flushed.
He felt that he had not been astray in his estimate of the controversial value--in the eyes of a girl, of course--of the appeal which he made to her.