through a force as mighty as Nature herself, to
do otherwise. Yet though he was utterly torn
apart, he was able, despite this mighty demand
within him, to understand her viewpoint. He had
understood it from the first. But the craving
within would not let him accept it.

"I suppose," he rejoined, "that the one decent
course for me would be to drop all this. But
somehow I can't. I love you that way, Helen!
Don't you understand? I cannot let go! I seem
to be forced repeatedly to make -- make a boor of
myself!" There was a moment's silence. "Yet
I have resisted it," he went on. "I have fought
it -- fought it with all the power I have! But I -- I
somehow -- cannot let go!"

Helen said nothing. She herself was coming to
realize fully the depths of this man's passion.
She knew -- knew as few women have known -- that
here was a man who wanted her; but she
knew also, and she was sorry to know it, that she
could not conscientiously give herself to him.
She regretted it not alone for his sake, but for her
own as well. She liked him, liked him better than
any other man she had ever known. But she knew
that she could not marry him, and believed in
her heart that her reasons for refusing him were
just reasons. But she remained silent, true to
her decision.

When Stephen spoke again it was not to plead
with her; he seemed at last to have accepted her
refusal for all time. But he asked her reason for
absolutely refusing him -- not that it mattered

[[135]]

p134 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p135w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p136

v?