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 such a way as to make a gulf? You and she are all I have, and—I may be selfish—I should like very much to keep you.'

'Of course I will let her know the way you feel,' said the old lady, a moment later, rearranging her cap and her shawl and putting away her pocket-handkerchief.

'It's a matter she certainly ought to understand. She would wish to, unless she is very much changed,' Macarthy added, as if he saw all this with high lucidity.

'Oh, she isn't changed—she'll never change!' his mother exclaimed, with rebounding optimism. She thought it wicked not to take cheerful views.

'She wouldn't if she were to marry an Englishman,' he declared, as Mrs. Grice left him to go to her daughter.

She told him an hour later that Agatha would be quite ready to start for Venice on the morrow and that she said he need have no fear that Sir Rufus Chasemore would follow them. He was naturally anxious to know from her what words she had had with Agatha, but the only very definite information he extracted was to the effect that the girl had declared with infinite feeling that she would never marry an enemy of her country. When he saw her later in the day he thought she had been crying; but there was nothing in her manner to show that she resented any pressure her mother might have represented to her that he had put upon her or that she was making a reluctant sacrifice. Agatha Grice was very fond of her brother, whom she knew to be upright, distinguished and exceedingly mindful of the protection and support that he owed her mother and