MISS SPAULDING: "No matter. There's no excuse for me. I listened simply because I was a woman, and couldn't help it; and, oh, what will he think of me?"

MISS REED: "I won't give you away; if you really feel so badly" -

MISS SPAULDING: "Oh, DO you think you can keep from telling him, Ethel dear? Try! And I will be your slave forever!" Steps are heard on the stairs outside. "Oh, there he comes!" She dashes out of the door, and closes it after her, a moment before the maid- servant, followed by Mr. Ransom, taps at it.

III.

SCENE: Miss Reed opens the door, and receives Mr. Ransom with well- affected surprise and state, suffering him to stand awkwardly on the threshold for a moment.

SHE, coldly: "Oh!--Mr. Ransom!"

HE, abruptly: "I've come" -

SHE: "Won't you come in?"

HE, advancing a few paces into the room: "I've come" -

SHE, indicating a chair: "Will you sit down?"

HE: "I must stand for the present. I've come to ask you for that money, Miss Reed, which I refused yesterday, in terms that I blush to think of. I was altogether and wholly in the wrong, and I'm ready to offer any imaginable apology or reparation. I'm ready to take the money and to sign a receipt, and then to be dismissed with whatever ignominy you please. I deserve anything--everything!"

SHE: "The money? Excuse me; I don't know--I'm afraid that I'm not prepared to pay you the whole sum to-day."

HE, hastily: "Oh, no matter! no matter! I don't care for the money now. I merely wish to--to a.s.sure you that I thought you were perfectly right in offering it, and to--to" -

SHE: "What?"

HE: "Nothing. That is--ah--ah" -

SHE: "It's extremely embarra.s.sing to have people refuse their money when it's offered them, and then come the next day for it, when perhaps it isn't so convenient to pay it--VERY embarra.s.sing."

HE, hotly: "But I tell you I don't want the MONEY! I never wanted it, and wouldn't take it on any account."

SHE: "Oh! I thought you said you came to get it?"

HE: "I said--I didn't say--I meant--that is--ah--I"--He stops, open- mouthed.

SHE, quietly: "I could give you part of the money now."

HE: "Oh, whatever you like; it's indifferent" -

SHE: "Please sit down while I write a receipt." She places herself deliberately at the table, and opens her portfolio. "I will pay you now, Mr. Ransom, for the first six lessons you gave me--the ones before you told me that I could never learn to do anything."

HE, sinking mechanically into the chair she indicates: "Oh, just as you like!" He looks up at the ceiling in hopeless bewilderment, while she writes.

SHE, blotting the paper: "There! And now let me offer you a little piece of advice, Mr. Ransom, which may be useful to you in taking pupils hereafter."

HE, bursting out: "I never take pupils!"

SHE: "Never take pupils! I don't understand. You took ME."

HE, confusedly: "I took you--yes. You seemed to wish--you seemed-- the case was peculiar--peculiar circ.u.mstances."

SHE, with severity: "May I ask WHY the circ.u.mstances were peculiar?

I saw nothing peculiar about the circ.u.mstances. It seemed to me it was a very simple matter. I told you that I had always had a great curiosity to see whether I could use oil paints, and I asked you a very plain question, whether you would let me study with you. Didn't I?"

HE: "Yes."

SHE: "Was there anything wrong--anything queer about my asking you?"

HE: "No, no! Not at all--not in the least."

SHE: "Didn't you wish me to take the lessons of you? If you didn't, it wasn't kind of you to let me."

HE: "Oh, I was perfectly willing--very glad indeed, very much so-- certainly!"

SHE: "If it wasn't your CUSTOM to take pupils, you ought to have told me, and I wouldn't have forced myself upon you."

HE, desperately: "It wasn't forcing yourself upon me. The Lord knows how humbly grateful I was. It was like a hope of heaven!"

SHE: "Really, Mr. Ransom, this is very strange talk. What am I to understand by it? Why should you be grateful to teach me? Why should giving me lessons be like a hope of heaven?"

HE: "Oh, I will tell you!"

SHE: "Well?"

HE, after a moment of agony: "Because to be with you" -

SHE: "Yes?"

HE: "Because I wished to be with you. Because--those days in the woods, when you read, and I" -

SHE: "Painted on my pictures" -

HE: "Were the happiest of my life. Because--I loved you!"

SHE: "Mr. Ransom!"

HE: "Yes, I must tell you so. I loved you; I love you still. I shall always love you, no matter what" -

SHE: "You forget yourself, Mr. Ransom. Has there been anything in my manner--conduct--to justify you in using such language to me?"

HE: "No--no" -