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 failure." (So that was the matter, he had hurt her vanity!)

"A failure," he said, laughing a little; "I thought you were making a success. If I didn't come oftener it was not because I did not think you wanted me."

"But you said just now"

"A third is never really wanted. I had set my heart on seeing Howard happy, and when I had, I went away to think about it."

"Oh," she said hopelessly. She had guessed that he was putting her off. "Shall we walk a little down the terrace? There is a pergola above, too, that I should like you to see." She was taking for granted that he would not come to the villa again.

They rose; she stood for a moment looking irresolutely up and down the terrace, then took a steeper path that mounted through the trees towards the pergola. Stuart followed her in silence, wondering. The world in her brain was a mystery to him, but evidently he had passed across it and cast some shadows. For a moment he almost dared to speak, and trouble the peace of the garden with what had been pent up in