"I promised Sophie I'd be back directly.

I'll see you at dinner, I suppose ?" As she came to the good-by, Cornelia had risen from her seat; by the action the remaining petals of the tea-rose had been shaken off, leaving the nucleus bare and unprotected.

Bressant's eyes fastened idly upon it, but he said nothing, and did not move, Cornelia withdrew her unaccepted hand, smiled, and, turning about, walked up the path to the house with an easy and dignified grace, which was not so much natural as the inspired result of passion.
Bressant looked down at the watch in his hand, and saw it marking the hour at which a dark epoch in his life began.

He knelt on one knee by the basin of the fountain--but not to pray.

Grasping in one hand the guard-chain of his watch, he dashed the watch itself two or three times against the stone basin-rim.