NICK LANSING had walked out a long way into the Campagna. Hishours were seldom his own, for both Mr. and Mrs. Hicks werebecoming more and more addicted to sudden and somewhat imperiousdemands upon his time; but on this occasion he had simplyslipped away after luncheon, and taking the tram to the PortaSalaria, had wandered on thence in the direction of the PonteNomentano.

　　He wanted to get away and think; but now that he had done it thebusiness proved as unfruitful as everything he had put his handto since he had left Venice. Think--think about what? Hisfuture seemed to him a negligible matter since he had received,two months earlier, the few lines in which Susy had asked himfor her freedom.

　　The letter had been a shock--though he had fancied himself soprepared for it--yet it had also, in another sense, been arelief, since, now that at last circumstances compelled him towrite to her, they also told him what to say. And he had said itas briefly and simply as possible, telling her that he would putno obstacle in the way of her release, that he held himself ather lawyer's disposal to answer any further communication--andthat he would never forget their days together, or cease tobless her for them.

　　That was all. He gave his Roman banker's address, and waitedfor another letter; but none came. Probably the "formalities,"whatever they were, took longer than he had supposed; and beingin no haste to recover his own liberty, he did not try to learnthe cause of the delay. From that moment, however, heconsidered himself virtually free, and ceased, by the sametoken, to take any interest in his own future. His life seemedas flat as a convalescent's first days after the fever hasdropped.

　　The only thing he was sure of was that he was not going toremain in the Hickses' employ: when they left Rome for CentralAsia he had no intention of accompanying them. The part of Mr.

　　Buttles' successor was becoming daily more intolerable to him,for the very reasons that had probably made it most gratifyingto Mr. Buttles. To be treated by Mr. and Mrs. Hicks as a paidoracle, a paraded and petted piece of property, was a good dealmore distasteful than he could have imagined any relation withthese kindly people could be. And since their aspirations hadbecome frankly social he found his task, if easier, yet far lesscongenial than during his first months with them. He preferredpatiently explaining to Mrs. Hicks, for the hundredth time, thatSassanian and Saracenic were not interchangeable terms, tounravelling for her the genealogies of her titled guests, andreminding her, when she "seated" her dinner-parties, that Dukesranked higher than Princes. No--the job was decidedlyintolerable; and he would have to look out for another means ofearning his living. But that was not what he had really gotaway to think about. He knew he should never starve; he hadeven begun to believe again in his book. What he wanted tothink of was Susy--or rather, it was Susy that he could not helpthinking of, on whatever train of thought he set out.

　　Again and again he fancied he had established a truce with thepast: had come to terms--the terms of defeat and failure withthat bright enemy called happiness. And, in truth, he hadreached the point of definitely knowing that he could neverreturn to the kind of life that he and Susy had embarked on. Ithad been the tragedy, of their relation that loving her rousedin him ideals she could never satisfy. He had fallen in lovewith her because she was, like himself, amused, unprejudiced anddisenchanted; and he could not go on loving her unless sheceased to be all these things. From that circle there was noissue, and in it he desperately revolved.

　　If he had not heard such persistent rumours of her re-marriageto Lord Altringham he might have tried to see her again; but,aware of the danger and the hopelessness of a meeting, he was,on the whole, glad to have a reason for avoiding it. Such, atleast, he honestly supposed to be his state of mind until hefound himself, as on this occasion, free to follow out histhought to its end. That end, invariably, was Susy; not thebundle of qualities and defects into which his critical spirithad tried to sort her out, but the soft blur of identity, ofpersonality, of eyes, hair, mouth, laugh, tricks of speech andgesture, that were all so solely and profoundly her own, and yetso mysteriously independent of what she might do, say, think, incrucial circumstances. He remembered her once saying to him:

　　"After all, you were right when you wanted me to be yourmistress," and the indignant stare of incredulity with which hehad answered her. Yet in these hours it was the palpable imageof her that clung closest, till, as invariably happened, hisvision came full circle, and feeling her on his breast he wantedher also in his soul.

　　Well--such all-encompassing loves were the rarest of humanexperiences; he smiled at his presumption in wanting no other.

　　Wearily he turned, and tramped homeward through the wintertwilight ....

　　At the door of the hotel he ran across the Prince of Teutoburg'saide-de-camp. They had not met for some days, and Nick had avague feeling that if the Prince's matrimonial designs tookdefinite shape he himself was not likely, after all, to be theirchosen exponent. He had surprised, now and then, a certaindistrustful coldness under the Princess Mother's cordial glance,and had concluded that she perhaps suspected him of being anobstacle to her son's aspirations. He had no idea of playingthat part, but was not sorry to appear to; for he was sincerelyattached to Coral Hicks, and hoped for her a more human fatethan that of becoming Prince Anastasius's consort.

　　This evening, however, he was struck by the beaming alacrity ofthe aide-de-camp's greeting. Whatever cloud had hung betweenthem had lifted: the Teutoburg clan, for one reason or another,no longer feared or distrusted him. The change was conveyed ina mere hand-pressure, a brief exchange of words, for the aide-de-camp was hastening after a well-known dowager of the oldRoman world, whom he helped into a large coronetted broughamwhich looked as if it had been extracted, for some ceremonialpurpose, from a museum of historic vehicles. And in an instantit flashed on Lansing that this lady had been the person chosento lay the Prince's offer at Miss Hicks's feet.

　　The discovery piqued him; and instead of making straight for hisown room he went up to Mrs. Hicks's drawing-room.

　　The room was empty, but traces of elaborate tea pervaded it, andan immense bouquet of stiff roses lay on the centre table. Ashe turned away, Eldorada Tooker, flushed and tear-stained,abruptly entered.

　　"Oh, Mr. Lansing--we were looking everywhere for you.""Looking for me?""Yes. Coral especially ... she w............