There was one gleam of comfort for him, and only one.

She was so quick, so keen, that she would be sure to understand him at once, without his entering into any long explanation.

Few words would suffice, and those words he must choose as best he could.

If it were possible, he would speak to her to-day--the sooner the better-and then all uncertainty would be ended.
It seemed to him, as he pondered these things, that a cloud had fallen over the sunshine.

In his heart he blamed the folly of that gentle mother who had been the cause of all this anxiety.
"Such matters are always best left alone," he said to himself, "If I should ever have children of my own, I will never interfere in their love affairs." Think as he would ponder as he would, it was no easy task that lay before him--to tell her in so many words that he did not love her.
Surely no man had ever had anything so ungracious to do before.
He looked round the grounds, and presently saw her the center of a brilliant group near the lake.