Chapter 9 - Page 2

added, and darted off again, after casting an eloquent glance at
Miss Carpenter.

Agatha disengaged herself from her companion, made a circuit, and
passed near Smilash, saying: "What is it?"

Smilash flitted away like a swallow, traced several circles
around Fairholme, and then returned to Agatha and proceeded side
by side with her.

"I have read the letter you wrote to Hetty," he said.

Agatha's face began to glow. She forgot to maintain her balance,
and almost fell.

"Take care. And so you are not fond of me--in the romantic
sense?"

No answer. Agatha dumb and afraid to lift her eyelids.

"That is fortunate," he continued, "because--good evening, Miss
Ward; I have done nothing but admire your skating for the last
hour--because men were deceivers ever; and I am no exception, as
you will presently admit."

Agatha murmured something, but it was unintelligible amid the din
of skating.

"You think not? Well, perhaps you are right; I have said nothing
to you that is not in a measure true. You have always had a
peculiar charm for me. But I did not mean you to tell Hetty. Can
you guess why?"

Agatha shook her head.

"Because she is my wife."

Agatha's ankles became limp. With an effort she kept upright
until she reached Jane, to whom she clung for support.

"Don't," screamed Jane. "You'll upset me."

"I must sit down," said Agatha. "I am tired. Let me lean on you
until we get to the chairs."

"Bosh! I can skate for an hour without sitting down," said Jane.
However, she helped Agatha to a chair and left her. Then Smilash,
as if desiring a rest also, sat down close by on the margin of
the pond.

"Well," he said, without troubling himself as to whether their
conversation attracted attention or not, "what do you think of me
now?"

"Why did you not tell me before, Mr. Trefusis?"

"That is the cream of the joke," he replied, poising his heels on
the ice so that his skates stood vertically at legs' length from
him, and looking at them with a cynical air. "I thought you were
in love with me, and that the truth would be too severe a blow to
you. Ha! ha! And, for the same reason, you generously forbore to
tell me that you were no more in love with me than with the man
in the moon. Each played a farce, and palmed it off on the other
as a tragedy."

"There are some things so unmanly, so unkind, and so cruel," said
Agatha, "that I cannot understand any gentleman saying them to a
girl. Please do not speak to me again. Miss Ward! Come to me for
a moment. I--I am not well."

Ward hurried to her side. Smilash, after staring at her for a
moment in astonishment, and in some concern,